Fiducial marker patterns, their automatic detection in images, and applications thereof

ABSTRACT

Fiducial markers are printed patterns detected by algorithms in imagery from image sensors for applications such as automated processes and augmented reality graphics. The present invention sets forth extensions and improvements to detection technology to achieve improved performance, and discloses applications of fiducial markers including multi-camera systems, remote control devices, augmented reality applications for mobile devices, helmet tracking, and weather stations.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention sets forth improvements of fiducial markerdetection technology to achieve enhanced performance, and teachesapplications of fiducial markers including multi-camera systems, remotecontrol devices, augmented reality applications for mobile devices,helmet tracking, and weather stations.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Marker patterns can be added to objects or scenes to allow automaticsystems to find correspondence between points in the world and points incamera images, and to find correspondences between points in one cameraimage and points in another camera image. The former has application inpositioning, robotics, and augmented reality applications, the latterhas application in automatic computer modeling to provide thecoordinates of world points for applications of the former. Furthermore,marker patterns can be used to contain information relating to variousproducts. For example, marker patterns printed out and mounted on apiece of equipment would allow an augmented reality system to aid aperson constructing or servicing this equipment by overlaying virtualgraphics with instructions over their view (known as “AugmentedReality”), with the aid of an image sensor (light capturing device suchas camera, video camera, digital camera, etc) and the computer visiontechniques that locate these patterns. Furthermore with camera cellphones and PDAs becoming commonly available, a marker could be used tolink a user to an URL address providing access to a series of images,advertisement etc. Another example of use includes a robot which couldnavigate by detecting markers placed in its environment. Using computervision, cameras and cameras cell phones to determine relative pose is aninexpensive and accurate approach useful to many domains.

Measurements such as position and orientation of objects, sensing ofindustrial and weather values, are possible with “smart cameras” whichare system combinations of image sensing and processing, and withconsumer mobile devices such as mobile phones, tablets, and wearabletechnology. Measurements such as position and orientation are useful forthe above mentioned augmented reality applications. Many measurementsrequire the identification of points in the environment, thus thecreation of a list of correspondences between object points within animage and points in the environment are needed. Fiducial marker systemshelp address this, they are a combination of special printed patterns,some image sensor, and the algorithms to process the images from theimage sensor to find the presence, and image location, of these fiducialmarkers. This distinguishes marker detection from other “marker-less”computer vision. It is not inconvenient in many applications to mountmarkers on objects or locations, indeed it is sometimes necessary to beable to use imagery from similar or identical objects such as warehouseboxes, or un-textured objects such as blank walls. Reliable and highspeed detection of fiducial markers is not a trivial task.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,769,236 B2 (referred to herein as the “Main DetectionAlgorithm”) describes a marker comprising a polygonal border having atleast four non collinear salient points, the interior of this patterncontaining a binary digital code. The “Main Detection Algorithm” teachesthe steps of detecting an image, using an edge detector to detect anedge in said image, grouping more than one edge into a line segments,and grouping these segments into polygons, and searching the polygoninteriors to select the polygons which are images of markers in thescene imaged by a camera. The “Main Detection Algorithm” operates oneach image independently with no history of past images. U.S. Pat. No.7,769,236 B2 is incorporated herein by reference.

FIG. 1 shows the “Main Detection Algorithm” from U.S. Pat. No. 7,769,236B2. This drawing illustrates processing stages for finding a marker in asingle image, with no a priori information.

FIG. 2 shows more details of the “detect polygons using edge-basedmethod” stage of the “Main Detection Algorithm” depicted in FIG. 1. Fromleft to right, top to bottom: Stage A shows the original image, edgesare found in the image and joined together to form line segments, whichin turn are joined in Stage B to form candidate quadrilaterals, eachcandidate quadrilateral is then examined in Stage C for an internalvalid digital code to produce a final output set of detected markers.This process is repeated for each input image frame. This does not takeadvantage of the similarity between consecutive image frames in videoinput.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is related to computer vision where the image iscaptured by a light sensing array, such as a video camera or imagesensor found in a hand-held tablet or wearable device. Algorithmsimplemented in software, hardware, or some combination of software andhardware can provide sensing and identification capabilities. Computervision allows a digital image or video stream to be used as a sensorinput. The present invention involves a complementary pair of patternsand algorithms to detect them. This allows fully automatic processessuch as camera calibration, robot navigation and spacecraft/satellitedocking as well as special hand-held remote controls, as well asgraphical interfaces for hand-held and wearable augmented reality andvirtual reality where users see computer generated content that isassociated, or appears to belong, along with the real environment.Applications of augmented reality involve advertising appearing fromprinted media using a smartphone, video gaming where people move arounda space with their bodies and perceive virtual content that appears tobe around them, and industrial interfaces where factory staff caninteract with machines, valves, sensors, etc from a distance.

With the present invention a user uses a special remote control or viewsa real scene with a mobile device such as a phone or tablet, through awearable device, or standard computer and sees overlaid information overtop of relevant objects in their environment identified by placing“fiducial markers” on top of them. Information can be seen by the user,and the user can interact with it to change computer data or affecthardware control. For example, markers can be placed next to lightswitches and move around while seeing virtual computer information, thusproviding the illusion of the user co-existing in the computer world.

Another aspect of the present invention relates to a Multi-Camera Arrayapplication for use in “AR/VR” helmets, which pertains to wearableaugmented reality and virtual reality where users can move around aspace (such as a room, or entire building) and see computer generatedcontent drawn in a wearable display that provides the illusion ofpresence. This is towards the science fiction notion of a “holodeck”.More specifically the present invention relates to an improved positionand orientation tracking system that is contained within a wearablehelmet like device, as well as the overall system architecture of adisplay, this novel tracking system, and optional graphics hardware andan optional wireless connection. A typical application is mobile videogaming or interactive design and visualization of 3D data.

The Multi-Camera Array application for use in high lighting dynamicrange situations is useful in fields such as space operations. Currentimage sensors have a limited dynamic range of intensity, there is arelatively small range between the minimal detected lower level andmaximal detected high level of light intensity. This range for imagesensors, especially those economical to use in commercial or industrialsystems, is less than the dynamic range for intensity of the human eye,for example. Humans can see features in a dark part of a scene at thesame time as features in a bright area of the same scene, whereas whenviewing with a video camera or mobile device image sensor only one orthe other can be seen, depending on the iris setting which limits thelight entering the sensor. Photographers typically have to decidebetween capturing the light or dark parts of a scene. Attempts toimprove this involve “High Dynamic Range” (HDR) imagery which typicallycombines several images with different exposures, an approach not usefulfor scenes with motion between these different exposures. This problemaffects situations where fiducial markers would be useful but there arewide ranges in light intensity, such as in outer space for dockingspacecraft or within an industrial site such as metal forging.

The present invention's applications are related to remote control andremote access to information. Information and control functionality isincreasingly being implemented by computerized systems, the presentinvention discloses a method for intuitive and convenient control ofsystems and observation of data collected or stored by a computer. Thecontrol of systems and information is becoming increasingly“disembodied” from the relevant world objects. For example, a lightswitch is not next to a room light but on a wall elsewhere. In factoriesmachines are their sensors are wired to a control room where one has tobe to control or view the sensory information. The present invention canbe considered part of a movement to bring a psychological link back toreal world objects, so that information and control is close to therelevant object. Another field of application is logistical andindustrial applications such as locating objects within a warehouse orseeing real time control SCADA (Supervisory Control and DataAcquisition) information for industrial plants or refineries. The userof marker detection algorithms (MDAs) along with web browsers, remoteimage capture, and sending collaborative information for remote guidedmaintenance between two workers is disclosed.

Quickly creating and deploying graphical content for AR is a currentproblem, disclosed herein is an approach using web-browser combined withMDAs technology to address this. AR systems are still an emergingtechnology and the content shown and computer programming forinteraction is typically custom made for the application. Workerstrained in the use of the proprietary software then must customize forchanges and new content, often with constant maintenance by the originalsoftware architects. Using the existing world wide web software andinterfaces leverages existing standards and accesses a wide group ofcontent developers familiar with html, who can quickly look at theirdesign in a normal web browser on their computer. Also, automaticattractive content can be created from a template, for example in abuilding each light switch will have a different name but all lightswitches can share the same graphical design.

In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided aconvenient solution in situations where data about a physical object orlocation of interest is on this computer screen but not at the physicalsite of the object or location. This invention discloses a method foreasily creating and deploying graphics for remote monitoring ofcomputerized information using “augmented reality” (AR) applications.Fiducial markers as two dimensional patterns are placed in theenvironment and are detected by the image sensor on a mobile device. Itis often difficult or undesirable to conveniently and safely obtain somedata directly to display on the mobile device, and the information isoften already graphically depicted and displayed on the computer screen.This invention uses the capture of the imagery on the computer screenand display of this imagery on the mobile device by associating theimagery with a specific fiducial marker. When the mobile device detectsa marker, it accesses a list matching marker ID with the imagery sourceand displays this imagery on the mobile device. For example, oneimplementation is where several rectangular sections of a control screenin an industrial site can be constantly captured by a program running onthe computer, with each image section stored on a server associated witha given marker ID, so that when the user is not in the control room withthis main computer, but aims their mobile device at objects or places intheir industrial facility, upon each of which a marker with a unique IDis affixed, and sees this image section drawn over top of the live videoimage on the mobile device's screen. In this way, live access to controlroom data can be gained when a user is not in the control room, withoutneeding to interface to the facility's communications directly.

An important metric for weather forecasting, mountaineering, windtunnels, and underwater work is the “visibility distance”; the distanceto which visible light can effectively travel. This typically requires ahuman being to estimate this distance. The present invention alsodiscloses a method by which a “smart camera” automated system coulddetermine this automatically and optionally relay this information backto some headquarters of a weather office, for example. Fiducial markersdetected by the said algorithms can provide a reliable binary result ofwhether a marker was visible or not. By placing markers at differentdistances to one or more image sensors, the optical characteristic ofvisibility distance can be determined by reporting which markers areconsistently detected or not detected. In clear visibility all markerswill be detected, and as the visibility deteriorates only the closestmarkers will be detected. Previous methods would require either a humanpresence, or a live camera transmitting a full image back to an officewhich is expensive in data transmission.

In one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method fordetecting a marker in an image, comprising the steps of detecting amarker in one or more previous frames of the image; using an edgedetector to detect an edge in a current frame of the image; trackingline segment edges of the marker detected in the previous frame to finda new set of line segments; grouping the new set of line segments toprovide a new set of polygons having salient points; calculatinghomography from polygon salient points; generating a list ofhomographies; extracting binary data from input image havinghomographies; verifying if the image is a marker by performing check sumand error correction functions; and if the image is a marker, identifyas a marker and verify binary data; wherein the image is a consecutiveimage sequence.

In another aspect of the present invention there is provided a methodfor detecting a marker in an image, comprising the steps of: splittingthe image into sub-images of smaller pixel size than the image; using amarker detection algorithm to detect a marker or portion of a marker ineach sub-image; wherein each sub-image is a different region of theimage from every other sub-image so as that over several image frames amarker is likely to be detected.

In a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a methodfor detecting a marker in an image, comprising the steps of: detecting amarker in one or more previous frames of the image; using an edgedetector to detect an edge in a current frame of the image; determiningblobs from centers of light or dark salient regions of similarbrightness in the current frame of the image; tracking the centers ofthe blobs between frames; and determining motion of markers betweenframes by using the blobs.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem comprising: a collection of several image sensors attachedtogether rigidly in a single frame, with each aimed at a differentoutward facing direction, for measuring position and orientation of theframe relative to an environment by detecting markers in the environmentby using a marker detection algorithm. The several image sensors can bea multi-camera array that is used for the navigation of a mobile robotwithin an environment with markers mounted as navigation landmarks. Theseveral image sensors can also be a multi-camera array that is within awearable helmet for augmented reality or virtual reality (AR/VR)comprising: a helmet containing a display visible to a users' eyes;multiple outwards facing cameras that cover some or all sections of acomplete spherical view; and an ad hoc arrangement of fiducial markerpatterns mounted in the environment; wherein the display shows virtualcomputer generated imagery either to replace or to augment real imagery.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem comprising: various types of media content such as manuals,pictures of interior contents, maintenance information, notes, audiorecording notes, video tutorials, PDF documents, warranty and reorderinginformation; markers on the media content; wherein the markers aredetected in an environment by using a marker detection algorithm.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided avisibility distance measuring system comprised of: capture means forcapturing at least one video or still image; fiducial marker patternslocated at various distances from the capture means and aligned with thecapture means; and a processor for processing a marker detectionalgorithm with the video or still image from the capture means.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided anaugmented reality system comprised of: capture means for capturing atleast one video or still image, the capture means having a displayscreen; fiducial marker patterns located on one or more objects withinview of the capture means; recognition means for recognizing thefiducial markers in the at least one video or still image; calculationmeans for calculating a mathematical transform between the displayscreen of the capture means and arbitrary world coordinates of thefiducial marker patterns; graphic drawing means for placing overlaydrawings and graphics on the display screen; transmission means fortransmitting the at least one video or still image to a remote location;and receiver means for receiving other overlay drawings and graphicsfrom the remote location.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided anaugmented reality system comprised of: fiducial marker patterns locatedon one or more objects or locations of interest at a remote location;capture means for capturing at least one video or still image of thefiducial marker patterns, the capture means having a display;recognition means for recognizing the fiducial markers in the at leastone video or still image; transmission means for transmitting therecognized fiducial marker patterns to a central location; and receivermeans for receiving visually displayed information associated with theremote location from the central location; wherein the visuallydisplayed information is shown on the display.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem using a marker detection algorithm for processing imagery fromone or more cameras aimed at a sphere that is constrained in positionbut has unknown changing rotation, comprising: markers mounted on thesphere; means for measuring a rotation position of the sphere withoutphysical contact; determination means for determining a rotation, suchas in rotation matrix, Euler angle, quaternion form; and output meansfor outputting the rotation.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided aremote control and/or augmented reality system comprised of: a) A mobiledevice with an outward facing video or still image capture, a display, amicro-computer, and optionally a network connection; b) Fiducial markerpatterns printed and mounted on objects or locations of interest, c)Software, firmware, or hardware in said mobile device that can recognizesaid fiducial markers in the imagery captured by said mobile device'scamera using a marker detection algorithm, d) “services” which arecomputer interfaces to some information or control functionality ofinterest to the user, such as databases or that which can be accessedfrom industrial automation systems, e) A webserver that is either on aremote computer or within the same mobile device that provides files foruse in creating a graphical interface (labeled a “widget” herein) forcommunication with said services, f) (optionally) a network thatprovides data communication capability between the webserver and one ormore mobile devices, if the webserver is not inside the mobile device,for the purpose of communicating these widgets and in the case ofapplications such as industrial SCADA systems possibly the services, g)Functionality in the mobile device to request widgets from the webserveraccording to a unique identifier of one or more fiducials detected insaid camera's imagery, h) One or more web browsers inside the mobiledevice which draw the graphics of the widget on the display screen.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided anaugmented reality implementation of the system wherein the mobile deviceis a smartphone or tablet where the widgets are drawn on top of thevideo or still image in positions over top of the image location of thefiducial markers.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided anaugmented reality implementation of the system wherein the mobile deviceis a wearable device where the graphics shown on the display arepositioned to coincide or correspond to the perceived direction as seenby one or both of the user's eyes (for example the Google Glass®wearable device). In yet a further aspect of the present invention thereis provided an augmented reality implementation of the system in anoptical see through configuration where the display has controllabletransparency so the user can see through the display thus providing theillusion of the web graphic ‘widgets’ appearing in a position thatallows the user to associate the widget with the marker, either with thegraphic drawn directly over the marker position or elsewhere in thedisplay with some line or arrow or some means of visually associatingthe widget with the fiducial marker.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the mobile device is a smartphone or tablet where thewidgets are drawn on top of the video or still image in positions whichare a function of the image location of the fiducial markers in such away to improve the visual quality of the view. This function would takethe position in the display image of all detected fiducial markers asinput and would output the location of the widget centers. A line orarrow or some indication may connect the marker location to the widgetso that if the widget is not directly close to the fiducial the userwould be able to see what fiducial the widget belongs to. Below arethree possible elements of this function, the function may perform one,two, or three of these:

a) a low pass smoothing function or Kalman filter, DESP (DoubleExponential), or similar which reduces the shaking and jittering of thewidgets as that the image location of the fiducials may shake due toimage noise and instability of the user's hand.b) Adaption to prevent widgets from overlapping, they would push eachother out of the way, such as bubbles bumping against each otherc) Adaptation to prevent widgets from not been fully seen because theyextend beyond the display borders, such as if the fiducial markers areclose to the border and the widgets are larger than the fiducials in thedisplay image. In this case the widget's position would be adjustedinwards so it can be viewed in its entirety.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the mobile device is a wearable device containing one ortwo displays visible from one or both of the user's eyes where thewidgets are drawn in position so they appear in the same direction asthe fiducial markers, so they appear on top of the fiducial markers orare in display positions which are a function of the image location ofthe fiducial markers in such a way to improve the visual quality of theview. This function would take the position in the display image of alldetected fiducial markers as input and would output the location of thewidget centers. A line or arrow or some indication may connect themarker location to the widget so that if the widget is not directlyclose to the fiducial the user would be able to see what fiducial thewidget belongs to. Below are three possible elements of this function,the function may perform one, two, or three of these:

a) a low pass smoothing function or kalman filter, DESP (DoubleExponential), or similar which reduces the shaking and uttering of thewidgets as that the image location of the fiducials may shake due toimage noise and instability of the user's head.b) Adaption to prevent widgets from overlapping, they would push eachother out of the way, such as bubbles bumping against each otherc) Adaptation to prevent widgets from not been fully seen because theyextend beyond the display borders, such as if the fiducial markers areclose to the border and the widgets are larger than the fiducials in thedisplay image. In this case the widget's position would be adjustedinwards so it can be viewed in its entirety.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided aremote control and/or augmented reality system for industry applicationsthat provides industrial SCADA (industrial automation acronym forSupervisory Control And Data Acquisition) interaction comprising: a) amobile device with an outward facing video or still image capture, adisplay, a micro-computer, and a network connection, b) Fiducial markerpatterns printed and mounted on objects or locations of interest such asmachines, sensors, valves, storage tanks, and other objects andlocations of relevance in an industrial automation system, c) Software,firmware, or hardware in said mobile device that can recognize saidfiducial markers in the imagery captured by said mobile device's camera,d) “services” which are computer interfaces to the SCADA informationand/or control functionality of the industrial automation systems, e) awebserver that is that is connected over the network (such as wirelessWIFI) to the SCADA system to provide files to describe the graphicalinterface (labeled a “widget” herein) for communication with saidservices, f) a network (such as wireless WIFI) that provides datacommunication capability between the webserver and one or more mobiledevices for the purpose of communicating these said widgets whichcontain code (such as JavaScript) to communicate with SCADA systemsthrough the said services, g) functionality in the mobile device torequest widgets from the webserver according to a unique identifier ofone or more fiducials detected in said camera's imagery, h) one or moreweb browsers inside the mobile device which draw the graphics of thewidget on the display screen, and i) the use of convention world wideweb graphics and interaction (eg. Html5, SVG, JavaScript) elements tofacilitate easy development, the use of existing web design expertise,and the ability to preview full widget functionality in a conventionalweb browser.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where there is a two stage process of communications between themobile device and the server providing the widget functionality, wherethe two stages are: 1) the downloading of the visual appearance andfunctional software code in the first interaction with the server, and2) a periodic request for real time SCADA data to update the widget,such as steam pressure, voltage, etc from a system element.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the visual appearance is created with HTML5 web page codeusing conventional HTML and SVG graphics elements and the use ofJavaScript to provide functionality for changing graphics andinteractions such as Jquery ‘Ajax’.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem that provides a mechanism for assigning markers from the mobiledevice by displaying a default widget for unassigned markers.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem that provides a mechanism for assigning markers from the mobiledevice by displaying a default widget for unassigned markers.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem that provides a visual indication of how old the informationdisplayed in the widget is, such as the color coded clock graphic in theupper right.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem that provides a visual indication of how old the informationdisplayed in the widget is, such as the color coded clock graphic in theupper right.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem that provides a visual indication of how old the SCADAinformation displayed in the widget is, such as the color coded clockgraphic in the upper right.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem for optical see-through wearable augmented reality systems wherethe camera field of view is larger than the display field of view (wherefield of view is defined as from the human user's eye viewpoint) wherethe widgets corresponding to markers which are in the view of the camerabut out of the field of view of the display and hence cannot be simplydisplayed in line with the marker are displayed around the edge of thedisplay with a visual difference such as reducing the size or appearanceto convey to the user they lie outside the display range, also typicallywith a line or arrow pointing towards the marker so the user canassociate the widget with the marker.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the visual appearance is created with HTML5 web page codeusing conventional HTML and SVG graphics elements and the use ofJavaScript to provide functionality for changing graphics andinteractions such as Jquery ‘Ajax’.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the web server has a distinct “switchboard” component withwhich the mobile device(s) communicates to receive the widgetinformation and pass messages in both directions to the appropriate“back end” service as a function of the type and ID number of eachfiducial marker detected, where this said switchboard contains themapping of what content to appear over which marker, and where thismapping is changeable by the user.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the switchboard mapping between the marker type and ID andthe matching widget graphics and service is configurable with a webinterface, i.e. one that can be viewed and configured by the userthrough the use of a web browser so the content appears as aninteractive web page.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the switchboard component of the web server systemcomponent relays messages back and forth to “service” elements which areseparate software programs which provide a bridge to protocols such asSCADA Modbus® or OPC Server® systems.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where there is a separate “service” executable software programfor each outside system type, where each type could be a specificprotocol such as a Modbus® SCADA.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the address and routing information is contained within aURL where the first part is an IP address and port number correspondingto a “service” program and the remaining part of the URL containsidentification elements for use in the domain handled by the service.For example a URL in the switchboard defining a service could behttp://localhost:8000/Service/modbusTCP/192.168.0.169/502/1/9 wherehttp://localhost:8000/Service/modbusTCP is the network address (likelyin the same server computer) for the service handling the ModbusTCP(copyright Schneider-Electric, Modicon) protocol to a SCADA system and192.168.0.169/502 is the address of a node within the ModbusTCP networkand 1/9 is the internal unit and address for data within that node.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the detection of fiducial markers is accomplished in partor in whole with custom hardware instead of the main processor, such asusing a FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), ASIC (Application SpecificIntegrated Circuit), a DSP (Digital Signal Processor), or somecombination of these three. This would allow faster detection of markersand/or detection in larger images without requiring a more expensivegeneral purpose main processor.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided aportable remote control comprising: an outward facing image sensor whoseimage is processed by an image detection algorithm partly or completelyimplemented in custom FPGA, DSP, and/or ASIC technology which mightreside in the same integrated circuit (on the same “chip”, possibly asecond “chip” in the same electronic component package), a touchsensitive display screen, a microcomputer with a web server, and awireless network interface through which both interactive graphics(widget) is loaded and control actions are sent. Where this remotecontrol is used for the control of equipment such as lighting, HVAC(Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning), arming or disarming alarmsystems, machine control in industrial applications and similarapplications where a device is controllable by a computing device. Wherethe remote control is used by the user simply aiming the device atobjects with two-dimensional fiducial marker graphic patterns mounted onthem, ideally where a fiducial marker has an intuitive psychologicalassociation with the object being controlled, even if the mechanical andelectrical components are elsewhere.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided awearable augmented reality device worn on the head, helmet, oreye-glasses of a user that contains an outward facing image sensor whoseimage is processed by specific image processing hardware designed todetect fiducial markers by an image detection algorithm partly orcompletely implemented in custom FPGA, DSP, and/or ASIC technology whichmight reside in the same integrated circuit (on the same “chip”,possibly a second “chip” in the same component electronic devicepackage), this said wearable device also containing one or more displaydevices that provide an image seen by the user in a way that theyexperience a combined view of the existing scene and graphic elementsseen in the display, where the graphic elements are created by a webbrowser and mini-computer contained within the wearable device thatreceives graphics and computer information from a remote system via awireless interface, where this graphics is created using elements ofworld wide web protocols and information is communicated using softwarethat runs inside a web browser such as JavaScript, and that thesegraphic elements are drawn in a way that the user associates them with aphysical object in their environment, most likely by simply placing thegraphic component in a location on the display such that it coincideswith the direction of the physical object as seen from the user's eyepoint of view. This display may be semi-transparent providing an opticalsee-through AR scenario.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where user input, such as pushing an information button on aremote control, tapping the screen on a mobile device, or tapping somepart of the wearable device, causes a special document reader forviewing and/or editing documents such as instruction manuals or trainingvideos or other media, or an external web browser.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided amarker detection algorithm where the line segments are tracked by tosearching for matching step edges along a set of search linesperpendicular to the original the line segments, with several searchlines spaced along each line segment, out to a length determined by theestimated motion between frames. Several candidate “edgel” points may befound along each search line that may correspond to the new true markerline segment edge, and a set of possible new line segments will becreated from the set of candidate “edgel” points from all search linesfrom an original line segment. From all the possible new line segmentsin the image a set of candidate polygons are created, for which in eachpolygon a homography relationship will be found to examine the digitalpattern to decide if the polygon is a valid marker.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided amarker detection algorithm where the set of possible new line segmentscreated from the set of candidate “edgel” points are created using aRANSAC (Random Consensus) approach (Fischler and Bolles 1981). TheRANSAC approach being where subsets of the set of candidate “edgel”points are chosen to define test lines, to which the distance to theremaining “edgel” points are measured to determine how many “edgel”ssupport the test line, where the number of supporting “edgels” is usedto determine if this test line is a valid line to output from thetracking stage.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided amarker detection algorithm where the candidate “edgel” points are foundalong the search line by using an edge detector filter, such as theSobel edge detector, with a positive or negative threshold which must beexceeded to declare a candidate “edgel” point.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided amarker detection algorithm where the candidate “edgel” points are foundalong the search line by performing an image correlation operationbetween a section of the previous image and patches of pixels along thissearch line, where the correlation output is thresholded to declare acandidate “edgel” point.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided amarker detection algorithm where the original line segments input to thetracking algorithm are from non-marker objects in the previous image aswell as from the sides of markers. These line segments are notconsidered of as high confidence as those tracked from the marker edgesand treated specially when combining their input. These “non-marker linesegments” are added to the calculations of determining the motion ofmarker(s) between frames, and/or to improve the 3-dimensional estimationof the markers relative to the camera to reduce the shaking of 3Dvirtual objects and the plane ambiguity problem, and described inSchweighofer and Pinz 2006. These “non-marker line segments” arefollowed from frame to subsequent frames and their 3-dimensional depth,or validation that they lay on the same plane as one or markers, isautomatically estimated.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided amarker detection algorithm for use in a consecutive image sequence,where only a sub-image of the input image is used, of smaller pixel sizethan the input image, and where this sub-image is a different region foreach subsequent image so as that over several image frames a marker islikely to be detected.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided amarker detection algorithm where the markers detected in previous framesare tracked in a sub-image or the entire image, thus allowing an updateof the presence and position of all markers known by the algorithm to beupdated with each image frame, even if the markers are not in the lastsub-image of the sectioning algorithm.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided amarker detection algorithm using additional points from the centers oflight or dark salient regions of similar brightness, so called “blobs”,especially those from over-saturated regions of the camera image whereexcessive brightness from a light source such as a light or window(example greyscale=full 255/255), or excessively dark region withconstant minimal brightness values (eg. Greyscale=0). These additionalpoints are added to the calculations of determining the motion ofmarker(s) between frames. These points are not considered of as highconfidence as the markers and treated specially when combining theirinput. These “blob” centers are tracked and their center locations in3-dimensions automatically determined.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided acollection of several image sensors attached together rigidly in asingle frame, with each aimed a different outward facing direction, todetect markers in the environment using the MDAs for the purpose ofmeasuring the position and orientation of this frame relative to theenvironment.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the multi-camera array is used for the navigation of amobile robot within an environment with markers mounted as navigationlandmarks.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the multi-camera array is used for a wearable helmet foraugmented reality or virtual reality (AR/VR) comprised of: a. A helmetcontaining both a display visible to the users' eyes (head mounteddisplay=HMD). The HMD is either transparent or opaque for AR and/or VRoperation, b. The display shows virtual computer generated imageryeither to replace (VR) or to augment real (AR) imagery, c. multipleoutwards facing cameras that cover some or all sections of a completespherical view, d. an ad hoc arrangement of fiducial marker patternsmounted in the environment where the AR/VR session takes place.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the processing and graphics rendering is performed on acomputing device mounted on the helmet, either as a full computer or agraphics unit (GPU). In yet a further aspect of the present inventionthere is provided a system where the processing is all performed on aremote computer, such as a server in the “cloud”.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the markers are detected by processing hardware or softwarebuilt into the helmet, such as with FPGA and/or DSP hardware.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the resultant pose or projection matrix is determined usingcomputing hardware built into the helmet.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the cameras are synchronized to have identical timing ofimage acquisition.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where a similar system with multiple cameras and markers is usedto position a hand-held device for use in conjunction with the helmet,or purely for navigation of a robotic system.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the detected markers' two-dimensional image coordinates arecombined with 3D environment (“world”) coordinates modified by the rigidrotation and translation of the cameras relative to the HMD or point inthe assembly to calculate true pose or a projection matrix for directuse with the graphics system.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the true pose or projection matrix is updated with themeasurements of an orientation sensor to provide updates during periodsof rapid head motion or where the markers are not visible in thecameras.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where an intermediate omnidirectional frame buffer is employed toreduce the latency of the graphics system to orientation changes, toreduce the “HMD pose latency problem”.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where audio output is generated with speakers mounted on thehelmet to provide sound specific to that position and orientation in avirtual environment.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the virtual imagery is created from a real scene such as atele-presence system where virtual views are combined with “viewmorphing”.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the configuration of the markers (either their centers orsalient points such as corners of square fiducial markers) aredetermined automatically in a unified coordinate system, such as bymoving the helmet through the environment and employing methods such as“bundle adjustment” or “visual SLAM (Simultaneous Localization andMapping)”.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is providedsystem where this calibration step is performed with a remote or “cloud”computer to reduce processing necessary on the helmet device.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where this calibration step is performed with processing on boardthe helmet device.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where an entire computer system which performs all the followingtasks: graphics generation (eg. 3D rendering), camera timing generationand image processing, and video game or visualization of data ordesigns, wireless communication to other helmet devices or computers.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where each helmet communicates over WIFI wireless protocols to asingle central computer which manages the design or game elements.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the system of helmet and markers is used for the purposesof AR or VR gaming where users “instrument” as space, such as a rentedgymnasium, by mounting markers in an ad hoc fashion on the floor, wall,and/or ceiling surfaces and use one or more of these helmets to playfirst person perspective video games.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the system of helmet and markers (markers) is used for thepurposes of architecture, CAD design, or scientific visualization wherethese helmets and hand-held devices are used to visualize, create, andmodify 3D designs.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the system of helmet and markers is used to remotely viewand operate equipment in a remote location, such as multiple peopleoperating and supervising a bomb disposal robot or other tele-operationtask with imagery combined from view-morphing of several video streamscaptured at the operation site.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem using the MDAs to associate various types of media content suchas manuals, pictures of interior contents, maintenance information,notes, audio recording notes, video tutorials, PDF documents, warrantyand reordering information.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where the relative position, either a full 3-dimensional relativepose, or a 2-dimensional relative position, is automatically recorded bythe system to enable in later searchers for a specific item, to provideinstructions such as arrow graphics to the user to guide them to amarker ID associated with the object or location they are interested in.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where this data is provided by a server and also accessible fromconventional web browsers. The media can be uploaded and associated tomarkers either with the mobile devices or through a computer program orweb page access on a conventional computer.

In yet a further aspect of the present invention there is provided asystem where both the media and position information is stored andshared by a server.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be further understood from the following descriptionwith reference to the attached drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the “Main Detection Algorithm”.

FIG. 2 shows more details of the “Main Detection Algorithm” depicted inFIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows the main and auxiliary marker detection algorithms.

FIG. 4 shows the first “Auxiliary Tracking Algorithm” sub-method.

FIG. 5 shows the second “Auxiliary Tracking Algorithm” sub-method.

FIG. 6 shows the “Image Sectioning Algorithm” for improving frame rate(processing speed) for large images.

FIG. 7 shows a pose ambiguity problem and provides an example of 3Daugmentation errors.

FIG. 8 shows a multimedia “augmented reality” application for usingmultiple fiducial markers.

FIG. 9 shows an example of 3D graphics drawn relative to detectedfiducial markers.

FIG. 10 shows an example of fiducial markers being used for remotecontrol.

FIG. 11 shows two examples of users experiencing “augmented reality”with the aid of fiducial markers.

FIG. 12 shows an industrial application with sensor data.

FIG. 13 shows two more applications of fiducial markers.

FIG. 14 shows different marker styles for different applications.

FIG. 15 shows a system diagram of Multi-Camera Array used in a wearableAR/VR (Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality) helmet.

FIG. 16 shows examples of ‘ad hoc’ placement of marker patterns in aroom on the left, while the right shows an example of markers placedonly on the ceiling.

FIG. 17 in the left and middle show examples of invention prototypesconsisting of the critical elements of display and multiple cameraslooking in different directions, while the right image shows possibleexample of consumer gaming helmet.

FIG. 18 shows other methods for tracking: “outside-in” configuration.

FIG. 19 shows basic pinhole model for a single image sensor (camera).

FIG. 20 shows single camera equations.

FIG. 21 shows single camera DLT solution for unknown projection matrixelements given the known world and ideal image points.

FIG. 22 shows multiple cameras mounted rigidly on AR/VR helmet forlocalization.

FIG. 23 shows multiple camera equations, shown for one camera (cam0 fromFIG. 22).

FIG. 24 shows conversion of each world reference point such as fiducialcenters or corners or light/dark blob center, to 3D coordinates in theHMD coordinate system.

FIG. 25 shows optional system component: intermediate “omni-directionalframe buffer” is used to minimize latency when users rapidly rotatetheir heads.

FIG. 26 shows variable exposures achieved with the Multi-Camera Arrayinvention.

FIG. 27 shows spacecraft/satellite docking system using fiducial markersand the Multi-Camera Array invention where each camera has a differentoptical filter allowing the markers to be detected in the spaceenvironment with large ranges of light intensity between dark and brightsunlight.

FIG. 28 shows a warehouse example wherein markers are placed on boxes,both to associate content about what is inside, but also to providerelative position information so that a user can be guided to a specificbox.

FIG. 29 shows a warehouse example with a view on a mobile device aimedat some containers.

FIG. 30 shows detection of a marker and overlay of web or genericgraphics.

FIG. 31 shows an industrial augmented reality application using aweb-browser to display a graphical interaction experience for the user.

FIG. 32 shows an industrial augmented reality application visualization.

FIG. 33 shows examples of widgets generated using web browser graphics.

FIG. 34 shows three augmented reality shown in a single image, each is aseparate web browser, or virtual web page within an html IFRAME tag.

FIG. 35 shows widget display size.

FIG. 36 shows suggested interactivity of widgets for 2nd and 3rdembodiment to match user's attention.

FIG. 37 shows the case of multiple markers in view of the mobiledevice's camera that correspond to visible places in the display screen.

FIG. 38 shows another implementation of multiple web pages using asingle web browser.

FIG. 39 shows a web-server providing widgets to a user device.

FIG. 40 shows industrial AR system example.

FIG. 41 shows a flow of events.

FIG. 42 shows a view of a “switchboard” web server configuration page.

FIG. 43 shows a sample fiducial marker the left, while the right shows awidget viewed in a conventional web-browser.

FIG. 44 shows a widget interface for assigning markers that are not yetassociated with a widget and service.

FIG. 45 shows implications of the difference of camera and display fieldof view for wearable augmented reality devices.

FIG. 46 shows example of augmented reality view perceived by user usingwearable display.

FIG. 47 shows a view experienced by user using wearable augmentedreality system, in this case a Google Glass wearable device operated in“optical see-through” mode.

FIG. 48 shows a visual indicator of how old data is.

FIG. 49 shows a diagram of remote collaboration using MDAs.

FIG. 50 shows a diagram of automatic visibility distance smart camerasystem using fiducial markers.

FIG. 51 shows an application of fiducial markers for tracking a sphereturning inside a fixed assembly.

FIG. 52 shows the information from a computer screen in the main controlroom in the left figure, which is often desired on mobile devices(middle figure) when out at the facility (outside image right figure).

FIG. 53 shows how information from a distant computer is accessible whenusing a mobile device, without needing to interface to the industrialcommunication system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention discloses a marker detectable by visual means andinventions using the marker(s) for applications including multimediagraphics and industrial visualization. The present invention extends the“Main Detection Algorithm” with unique additions that take advantage ofthe fact that many applications of the marker detection are a sequenceof image “frames”, such as from a video camera, which contain similarcontent from frame to frame. Subsequent images as in a video stream froma hand-held or wearable device, or video camera on an automated device,are typically the result of camera and object motion but contain a lotof the same objects. The usage of knowledge from previous image framescan be used to achieve superior performance such as to provide fasterprocessing, handle larger images with limited processing power, helpestimate the marker position with an image frame when a marker is notdetected, and improve the precise image measurements for applicationssuch as 3D graphics in augmented reality applications and to address theplane ambiguity problem in such 3D graphics.

The first unique addition to the “Main Detection Algorithm” disclosed isnamed the “Auxiliary Tracking Algorithm” (FIGS. 3-5) and involves animage search for line segments along search paths perpendicular to apredicted position of an edge. In the first sub-method only the linesforming the edges of the markers' predicted boundary are used, and inthe second sub-method line segments are also used from objects that arenot markers but in the same scene. Those lines whose 3D depth areestimated are used to refine the marker image coordinates forapplications such as more stable 3D augmented reality graphics.

The second method to improve the marker detection, by a decrease theprocessing time, is named the “Image Sectioning Algorithm” herein (FIG.6). It involves processing only a subsection (a sub-image) of each imagereceived, with the sub-image portion of the image changing with eachframe with overlapping regions. With sub-images of ½ by ½ dimensionsonly 25% of the image need be processed with each frame time permittinga system that can track markers in imagery with four times as manypixels with the same processing power computer. This method wouldtypically be combined with the Auxiliary Tracking Algorithm whichoperates on the entire image since the Auxiliary Tracking Algorithmrequires less calculation than the Image Sectioning Algorithm.

FIG. 3 shows the main and auxiliary marker detection algorithms. Themain marker detection method processes a single image starting with noprior information, it is composed of Stage A: detection of linesegments, Stage B: combining line segments to create hypotheticalquadrilaterals, and Stage C: testing the interior of each quadrilateralfor those with valid digital codes to create an output list of markerswithin an image frame. The stages of the main algorithm are depicted inthe lower row. Stage A is the most processor intensive and the majorityof the processing time is spent by this stage, this is one motivationfor the extensions disclosed in the present invention. The auxiliarydetection method tracks detected markers from previous frames bypredicting and then updating the markers' border line segments. Thestages of the auxiliary tracking detection method are depicted in FIG.4. The line segments predicted are either from just the markers in thefirst “Auxiliary Tracking Algorithm” sub-method, and are from sceneobjects which are not markers in the second “Auxiliary TrackingAlgorithm” sub-method.

FIG. 4 shows the first “Auxiliary Tracking Algorithm” sub-method. Thisis an extension of the “Main Detection Algorithm” for frame to frametracking, when a consecutive set of similar images are used such as avideo stream. The marker detection processing time is reduced by notprocessing the entire image to find line segments, rather to find newlines close to the four lines from the original marker from the previousframe. A set of search lines perpendicular to the original marker sidesare shown in black in the upper right image. Edges along theseperpendicular search lines points are detected having the same polarityof edge (dots in lower left image). New possible line segments arecreated from these detected edge points and combined into candidatequadrilaterals which are then examined using the digital analysis. Notethat the combination of line segments into candidate quadrilaterals andexamination of interior digital codes are the same steps as in the maindetection algorithm, the process starting with “list of polygons” fromFIG. 1

FIG. 5 shows the second “Auxiliary Tracking Algorithm” sub-method. Afurther extension of the marker boundary line tracking approach toinclude lines in the surrounding image. Prominent line edges can betracked to new hypothetical positions in the latest image frame in animage sequence (such as video), these additional line edges not frommarker sides are not used to define possible marker edges, but toperform two functions: estimate what the position a marker should be ifit is not detected in this image frame, and to adjust slightly thehomography for the marker to provide more stable 3D augmentations toprevent or reduce the pose ambiguity problem shown in FIG. 7.

FIG. 6 shows the “Image Sectioning Algorithm” for improving frame rate(processing speed) for large images. Instead of processing the entireimage from an image sequence (such as video input), only 25% of thepixels are processed each frame time, with a different 25% each time.The input image size is split into one ½ resolution reduced size imageand 9 sub-images each only ½ of the width and ½ of the height, staggeredin 9 overlapping spots to ensure coverage of the entire image size.Bottom row left to right: input image reduced in resolution ½×½, theupper left, upper right, lower left, and lower right quarter, followedby the top middle, bottom middle, left middle, right middle, followed bythe center ½×½ region. In total 10 sub-images are processed, each 25% ofthe original pixels but processed at 4× the speed, taking 10 frame timesto go through the entire set of images.

The third method to improve the marker detection system involves thetracking between subsequent image frames regions of uniform light ordark regions, called “blobs”, particularly those of saturated brightregions such as those from light sources. Typically when an image sensorwhich is configured to collect an image from an environment such as anindoor scene, or a night scene, is aimed at light sources such as roomlighting or outdoor street lights, the light intensity is too bright todistinguish features within this light and the image sensor detectssimply a region of uniform maximum intensity (often accompanied byover-saturated entire horizontal or vertical lines within the imagedepending on the sensor design). These “blobs”, especially those fromlight sources, are useful for determining the motion of the camerarelative to the scene if the “blobs” from one image frame can be matchedwith those from subsequent frames. The markers in the scene providereliable anchor points between frames from which the association of“blobs” can proceed even when previous “blob” associations betweenframes are wrong. These “blobs” assist both in determining inter-framemotion as well as reducing the 3D virtual object jitter and the planarambiguity depicted in FIG. 7.

FIG. 7 shows a pose ambiguity problem and provides an example of 3Daugmentation errors. The chess pieces are virtual and do not exist inthe real scene, they are drawn using computer graphics in each framerelative to detected markers to give the illusion of the chess piecesexisting in the scene. However, the 3-D virtual objects can be drawnincorrectly. Left to right: correctly drawn black chess piece drawn overmarker, small change in marker outline causes incorrect extraction of 3Dpose and back chess piece is drawn incorrectly leaning right, furtherdeterioration of pose shows black chess piece appears up-side-down.These large 3D errors are due to the small size of the marker withrespect to the scene, the marker sides are nearly parallel to each othercausing this planar ambiguity, even though the entire image hassufficient parallax to correctly establish perspective. The poseambiguity problem with respect to planar situations (such as markers) isdescribed in Schweighofer and Pinz 2006 (refer to Reference list).

For this document the term “MDAs” is defined as marker detectionalgorithms, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,769,236 B2 or such asthe above mentioned marker detection methods (“Main DetectionAlgorithm”, “Auxiliary Tracking Algorithm”, “Image SectioningAlgorithm”, “Assisted Blob Tracking Algorithm” or some combinationthereof.

A single marker or multiple markers are useful for many applications as“fiducial” points which allow correspondences between imagery and theenvironment containing the markers.

FIG. 8 shows a multimedia “augmented reality” application for usingmultiple fiducial markers: “magic lens” for hand-held tablet/phonedevices, “magic mirror” with markers worn or held by users, and“augmentorium” where entire room is used for localization and 3Dgraphics.

FIG. 9 shows an example of 3D graphics drawn relative to detectedfiducial markers. Left to right: marker on drink coaster detected, 3Drhino model appears to sit on coaster, other 3D objects drawn over topof markers.

FIG. 10 shows an example of fiducial markers being used for remotecontrol. Content shown depends on a fiducial marker seen by an outwardfacing video camera. For example, a light control or security systemmenu may appear.

FIG. 11 shows two examples of users experiencing “augmented reality”with the aid of fiducial markers. A user is ‘looking through’ hand-heldor wearable mobile device at fiducial marker. The display screen showslive video or still image with overlaid graphics. The user sees acombination of the input image or video and computer generated content.

FIG. 12 shows an industrial application with sensor data. Overlaidgraphics placed on still or live video image over top of where detectedmarkers are seen in the input imagery.

FIG. 13 shows two more applications of fiducial markers. Film studiocameras are calibrated by surveying an array of markers, and insects aretracked in entomology research by affixing markers to their backs. Fullyautomatic processes using computer vision enable new types of sensors,allowing automatically obtained measurements without physical contact,such as the examples of using fiducial markers shown in FIG. 13.

FIG. 14 shows different marker styles for different applications. Theinterior digital pattern can vary with the number of desired uniquemarker patterns (left table). The markers can have square or roundededges and interior, and the marker can have a black quadrilateral on awhite background or vice versa.

FIG. 15 shows a system diagram of a Multi-Camera Array used in awearable AR/VR (Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality) helmet. Severaloutward facing cameras are rigidly mounted to the helmet and aimedoutwards to track markers and features to calculate the position andorientation of the helmet with respect to the environment.

FIG. 16 shows examples of ‘ad hoc’ placement of marker patterns in aroom on the left, while the right shows an example of markers placedonly on the ceiling. In the left image, the marker patterns are put upquickly on any empty and convenient wall, ceiling, or floor surface.Note that the markers don't need to be as large as the ones shown. Inthe right image, the markers are placed only on the ceiling. Note thatwith the extensions to the main detection system disclosed in thisinvention, not as many markers would be needed for tracking.

FIG. 17 in the left and middle show examples of invention prototypesconsisting of the critical elements of display and multiple cameraslooking in different directions, while the right image shows possibleexample of consumer gaming helmet.

FIG. 18 shows other methods for tracking “outside-in” configuration.Cameras, usually with lighting sources, view constellations ofreflective balls to calculate pose. The left image shows a diagram ofmultiple cameras looking in at reflective spheres mounted on hockeyplayer, as taught by US patent publication number 20030095186. The rightimage shows Vicon brand cameras. The use of fiducial markers removes theneed for expensive extra equipment traditionally used for trackingposition as depicted in FIG. 18.

The present invention teaches several applications which use the MDAs.Also taught herein are two systems containing multiple image sensorelements combined in an array where the imagery from each image sensoris processed using the said algorithms, named “Multi-Camera Arrays”herein. The first Multi-Camera Array is a “panoramic array” wheremultiple image sensor elements are fixed solidly to the same commonframe and arranged looking outwards in order to detect markers allaround for the purpose of calculating the position, orientation andpossibly motion of the frame relative to an environment or other objectscontaining these markers, as it passes through this environment or movesrelative to these other objects. This removes the need for extra specialequipment traditionally used involving specialized equipment as depictedin FIG. 18. An anticipated application of this Multi-Camera Array is tobe part of a “Virtual/Augmented Reality Helmet” depicted in FIG. 15. Asecond “Multi-Camera Arrays” invention disclosed herein has each imagesensor covered with a different optical filter to allow the array todetect markers in applications of high dynamic range of light intensity,such as found in applications such as automatic docking systems forspacecraft and satellite retrieval, where the difference between brightand dark lighting exceeds the range from light to dark for a singleexposure due to a single filter and iris setting.

Another aspect of the invention disclosed herein is an application whereimages from one or more image sensors on a mobile are processed usingthe said algorithms to enable a logistics system, such as would be usedin a warehouse. The present invention both solves the “what is in thisbox” problem as well as using learned past relative locations of markersto provide guidance to a specific location or object, such as awarehouse box. The present invention can be used solely on a singlemobile device, or can be networked providing information available toother mobile devices and users searching for information on the objectsor locations adorned with markers.

Another aspect of the invention disclosed herein is an application ofaugmented reality where one or more computer “web browser” isinstantiated to correspond to each marker detected by one of the saidmarker detection algorithms. This is a method for easily creating anddeploying interactive graphics for “augmented reality” (AR)applications. Fiducial markers placed in the environment are detected bya mobile device. The interactive graphics to show the user is providedby web graphics such as html. Typically the actual content creation ofAR systems is application specific programming and graphics. Insteadwith the present invention the creation of interactive content isaccelerated using conventional web graphics and interaction primitives,and the augmented reality software can be made simpler by leveragingthese existing web assets. Three embodiments of the user's mobilecomputing device are described for this web-browser based AR system: aremote control device with display screen and outward facing videocamera, a consumer phone or tablet device, or wearable mobile devicesworn on the user's head. In the first embodiment the web page is simplydisplayed on the remote control's display screen. In the second andthird embodiment the graphics are shown in a moving virtual web browserwindow positioned over one or more detected markers. This virtual webbrowser window is placed over a live view and a ‘widget’ appears whichwas written in html or other web standard languages. In all three casesthe widget content is downloaded from a conventional web server onto themobile device, and displayed over the detected position of a 2D printedmarker.

Tracking Spherical Objects

The present invention also sets forth a unique tracking system forspherical objects whose rotational position need to be tracked, such asthat of a simulator as depicted in FIG. 51. The image sensor with MDAsdetecting markers placed on the sphere allows for real time contact-lessdetermination of rotation.

FIG. 51 shows an application of fiducial markers for tracking a sphereturning inside a fixed assembly. Applications such as flight or spacesimulators desire the ability to rotate continuously in any directionwithout reaching some mechanical or wiring limit to simulate theunrestrained rotation of an aerospace craft. It is difficult to measurethe rotation with conventional instruments, attaching markers andobserving with a video camera provides this rotation.

Visibility

Another aspect of the use of MDAs of the present invention is shown inFIG. 50. Fiducial markers are mounted at fixed distances relative to afixed video or still camera. The fiducial markers detected by the saidalgorithms provide a reliable binary result of whether a marker wasvisible or not. By placing markers at different distances to one or moreimage sensors, the optical characteristic of visibility distance can bedetermined by reporting which markers are consistently detected or notdetected. In clear visibility all markers will be detected, and as thevisibility deteriorates only the closest markers will be detected. Suchsystems could be deployed to remote locations and only a few bits ofdata would be sent back to report this measure for instant analysis at amain office, and/or this measure could be recorded to a data-logger forlater analysis.

FIG. 50 shows a diagram of an automatic visibility distance smart camerasystem using fiducial markers. Fiducial markers are mounted at fixeddistances relative to a fixed video or still camera. Depending on thevisibility of the environment, such as outdoor weather, all, some, ornone of the fiducials will be visible. With these example distances, ifthe visibility is only 25 M then only the first marker will be detectedby the computing system processing the imagery from the image sensor.

Multi-Camera Array for AR/VR Helmet

An application of the Multi-Camera Array invention disclosed is thehelmet application, a method of creating a wearable system appropriatefor “augmented reality” or virtual reality graphics.

The “holodeck” is a recognized science fiction concept that virtualreality (VR) aspires to create. In the “holodeck” (USPTO trademarkapplication 75212723) a user can move about a space and senses computergenerated objects and environments that are not real. With ahead-mounted display (HMD) and an accurate pose (position andorientation) measuring device (a “tracker” or “localizer”) the visualand audio senses for this holodeck concept can be realized. With VR allthe sensory data provided is generated by the computer, whereas with“augmented reality” computer generated graphics and sound are added tothe users' sensory input. The tracking accuracy needed for a convincingmerging of real and virtual objects is higher with AR. Video gamers andmany CAD (Computer Assisted Design) users have needed such a system. Thedisplay technology, the HMD's display screens (with optional audiospeakers) have been around for some years with a recent improvement withthe “Oculus Rift”® headset. However, the pose tracking technology, thatis low cost and practical to install, to make the holodeck a reality hasbeen lacking.

With the present invention a user can move around while seeing virtualcomputer information, thus providing the illusion of the userco-existing in the computer world. The user wears this system on theirhead which contains both a display and a positioning (localization)system that calculates the position and orientation of the systemrelative to the markers in the environment so that the virtualinformation can be drawn from that perspective. One aspect of the designincludes a single unit where the display, localization tracking cameras,and a full graphics system are all contained within the wearable device.This allows the view to be drawn rapidly as the user moves their headwithout waiting for delays from a computer image from a computer alsoworn on the person or images transmitted wirelessly. And a furtherimprovement is disclosed by which all or part of the entire panorama ofwhat the user could see is rendered by a computer and rotated toaccommodate rapid orientation movements by the user to provide the smalllatency time necessary to satisfy the human visual system.

Localization is an unsolved challenge facing augmented reality (AR) andvirtual reality (VR) systems. While orientation sensors built into manywearable Head Mounted Displays (HMD's) provide a certain accuracysuitable typically for VR only, position tracking is not considered asolved problem with a practical solution. The present inventionaddresses the problem with a design where a few patterned markers onlyneed be placed in the environment, indeed less markers need to be placedif the “Auxiliary Tracking Algorithm” or “Blob Tracking” extensions areused. In one implementation of the present invention, a true pose is notactually calculated but rather only the necessary “projection matrix”needed in the computer graphics system. A typical application is aconsumer video gaming situation where a large room, hallway, or entirefloor of a building could be easily converted into a gaming arena byprinting out a set of patterns with a conventional printer and stickingthem to convenient wall or ceiling places. Another application is anarchitectural or chemistry design office where a room is speciallyfitted with more permanent marker patterns in the walls, ceiling, andfloor.

Also novel, in one variant of the present invention, is the mathematicsof producing a 12-element projection matrix instead of a true 6 degreeof freedom (6-DOF) pose for use in rendering the virtual contentproviding better accommodation of the unavoidable small measurementerrors. Furthermore this can be incrementally adjusted with relativemotion information from orientation sensors. The same technology couldbe repeated for hand-held objects such as control wands or weapons in“first person shooter” video games.

The present invention also discloses the design of a single unit wherethe display, localization tracking cameras, and a full graphics systemare all contained within the wearable device. This allows the view to bedrawn rapidly as the user moves their head without waiting for delaysfrom a computer image from a computer also worn on the person or imagestransmitted wirelessly. And a further improvement is disclosed by whichall or part of the entire panorama of what the user could see isrendered by a computer and rotated to accommodate rapid orientationmovements by the user to provide the small latency time necessary tosatisfy the human visual system. Also in a practical system would besensor fusion with an orientation sensor or IMU to provide constant poseinformation when the helmet is moving too quickly for markers to berecognized, or if the helmet moves to locations where sufficient numberof world reference points such as markers cannot be seen.

Yet another additional aspect is a system where an intermediate“omni-directional frame buffer” is used to minimize latency when usersrapidly rotate their heads. The graphics pipeline renders into anomnidirectional buffer, such as 6 sides of a cube, and a previouslygenerated buffer is used to generate the planar view corresponding tothe current user's viewpoint in non-stereo systems. This makes possiblelatencies of less than 16 ms, as is determined to be necessary by humaninterface research.

It is desirable, but not completely necessary, for the cameras to besynchronized, so they are all capturing images at the same points intime. Therefore in the ideal embodiment a single set of timing signalsgenerated by the helmet computer are sent to all the video imagesensors. Also desirable is the implementation of the fiducial detectionand line/blob tracking in low level hardware such as FGPA, DSP devices,or a combination for low cost and high frame rate operation where thecomputer only needs to perform the matrix operations described hereinand to load and modify 3D object geometry sent over wireless channels toother similar helmets or a main controller.

The optional but recommended mathematical processing of the detectedfiducial locations in the cameras using the DLT equations to provide theprojection or “modelview” matrix (in OpenGL graphics) directly withoutan intermediate calculation of a true rotation and position pose is alsonovel and avoids jittery and unstable graphics typical with expectedinaccuracy.

The steps performed every frame time (ideally the cameras aresynchronized such that there is only one time all image frames areavailable) are:

-   -   1. Find fiducial (marker) corners or centers in each camera        image using MDAs,    -   2. Optionally find the light/dark blobs from features such as        over-saturated regions of the image of overhead lights or        windows. Since these features are not unique, this can be done        by first predicting and then updating their position.    -   3. Optionally predict and track line segments,    -   4. Adjust for possible image warping of point and/or line        coordinates in the images such as radial and thin prism        distortion. These distortion effects are present in all cameras        but especially in the low cost wide angle optics likely used in        this AR/VR helmet.    -   5. Convert the image coordinates to the “ideal image        coordinates” homogeneous [i,j,1] vector as in FIG. 20 (left),    -   6. Convert the 3D world coordinates [Xw,Yw,Zw] of the reference        points in the environment such as the center or corners of        fiducial's or light/dark blob centers to HMD coordinates        [Xhmd,Yhmd,Zhmd] using the fixed Rcam,Tcam relative pose for the        camera in which the fiducial was recognized.    -   7. Create two rows of the A matrix and optional B vector for        each ideal image homogeneous vector [i,j,1] and 3D converted        point [Xhmd,Yhmd,Zhmd]. Solve either AX=B or AX=0 system of        equations. Use the former when the HMD is guaranteed not to come        near the origin of the world coordinate system, or for more        generic flexibility solve the latter equation using SVD methods        finding the null space X. This vector X contains the projection        matrix (without virtual camera parameters) that can be loaded        into the graphics system such as with the load matrix or        GLMultiplyMatrix function in OpenGL, GL-ES.    -   8. If features such as lines or light/dark blobs are used, there        might be a matching error, so perform “RANSAC” (Random Sampling        Consensus) sampling of a minimal subset of 6 points and repeat        step 7 until a solution is found.    -   9. Optionally if no fiducials or features are found in this        image and an orientation or IMU sensor is mounted in the helmet,        either combine this information with a Kalman filter approach        (likely requires conversion to true pose) or adjust last found        projection matrix by replacing the leftmost 9 elements with the        result of post-multiplying these elements with a rotation matrix        R containing the relative motion detected by the orientation        sensor. Likewise transform the position encoded in the rightmost        3 vertical elements with matrix operations (such as        [P14,P24,P34]=CRC⁻¹ where C is the leftmost 9 elements of        projection matrix X.

An optional but important part of the invention is the use of automaticcalibration systems for either or both of the determination of relativeR,T offsets of the cameras relative to the HMD in the factory, and themore often performed determination of the 3D world coordinates of thefiducial centers or corners. In the latter, users can simply mountfiducial patterns at convenient locations in the environment and walkaround with the helmet for the system to automatically determine theworld [Xw,Yw,Zw] coordinates of each center or corner. Note that thefiducial centers are more reliably determined in varying lightingconditions than the corners, but the system will then need morefiducials in the environment.

Another optional addition is the use of an intermediate omnidirectionalframe buffer (FIG. 25) which renders the entire scene in all (or likelyto be seen) directions onto surfaces such as a cube, with this surfacethen imaged using the projection matrix calculated as described above.This, while adding a possible short delay in translation of theenvironment or update of game elements, reduces the orientation error tomeet the 16 ms “HMD pose latency” error determined by researchers (Mania2004, see References List below).

FIG. 19 shows basic pinhole model for a single image sensor (camera) anddiagrams for converting a 3D point into a 2D point in an image. The leftdiagram shows one dimension, similar triangles are used to find where apoint [Xc,Yc,Zc] projects onto the image plane at [u,v]. The 3Dcoordinates are relative to the camera and need to be converted from‘world’ coordinates with the pose (position, orientation) of the camera.

FIG. 20 shows single camera equations. Notation for derivation, forconvenience the image points [u,v] are converted to “ideal” image points[i,j] to remove the camera specific internal parameters. The pose of thecamera in world coordinates is expressed by the 3×3 matrix R andposition vector [Tx,Ty,Tz]. The “projection matrix” is defined herein asthe conversion from 3D world coordinates to intermediate ideal imagecoordinates [i′,j′,k′].

FIG. 21 shows single camera DLT solution for unknown projection matrixelements given the known world and ideal image points. In this casevector V=[P11,P12, . . . P33,(and optionally P34)]. Two variants can beused, either assuming P₃₄=1 to allow a less computational intensivesolution of AX=B where X has 11 elements, or where this is not wise toassume, the second form with the AX=0 form where X has 12 elements whichcan be solved with the more computationally intensive singular valuedecomposition (SVD) method.

FIG. 22 shows multiple cameras mounted rigidly on AR/VR helmet forlocalization. Four cameras have their pose fixed and known as (R0,T0),(R1,T1), . . . (R3,T3) in the HMD coordinate system and 7 fiducialmarker centers with world coordinates [x0,y0,z0], [x1,y1,z1], . . . ,shown in this diagram. Fiducial markers are detected in each camera.Fiducial marker F0 is detected with image coordinates (u00,v00) incamera 0. Fiducial marker F1 is detected with image coordinates(u01,v01) in camera 0 and with image coordinates (u11,v11) in camera 1.

FIG. 23 shows multiple camera equations, shown for one camera (cam0 fromFIG. 22). The camera's orientation Rcam0 and position[Txcam0,Tycam0,Tzcam0] in the HMD coordinate system [Xhmd,Yhmd,Zhmd[ isfixed and known. The fiducial marker centers [u00,v00] or corners[u000,v000,u001,v001,u002,v002,u003,v003] are measured in camera0 withthe world coordinates of the fiducial known (center [Xwf0,Ywf0,Zwf0])also known. The task then reduces to finding the projection matrix [P00,. . . P34] which provide the graphics mappings for AR/VR. Theseequations would be repeated for each fiducial detected in each camera.Each set is converted to the DLT equations in FIG. 21, as long as 6points (such as fiducial centers or corners or bright/dark blob centers)the projection matrix can be found.

FIG. 24 shows conversion of each world reference point such as fiducialcenters or corners or light/dark blob center, to 3D coordinates in theHMD coordinate system.

FIG. 25 shows optional system components: an intermediate“omni-directional frame buffer” is used to minimize latency when usersrapidly rotate their heads. Graphics engine renders the entireomnidirectional view (cube version shown) of which a single perspectiveview is warped quickly according to the latest projection matrix ororientation to reduce the “HMD pose latency problem”

A further related addition is the repeat of this technology in ahand-held device for manipulating the environment, such as a 3D mouse orwand in a visualization or design application, or weapon in a firstperson shooter video game. It also has several outwards facing camerasand an orientation sensor. It may have a cable or short range wirelessconnection, such as “Bluetooth” to communicate its pose and action ofbuttons to the helmet such that only the helmet needs to communicate toa system wide management system.

The present invention teaches the combination of multiple outwardsfacing cameras mounted on a HMD (“inside-out tracking”) or hand-helddevice, and fiducial markers mounted in the environment for the purposesof AR or VR. AR using single cameras and fiducials is widespread, butnot in way that allows wide area practical use as per the presentinvention. Catadioptric cameras have been used for localization inresearch projects but cannot provide the high resolution imagery as theproposed set of standard cameras.

As well, the use of the DLT determination of the projection matrixinstead of true pose has not been applied with multiple camerasproviding a simple system that adapts without jittering pose artifactsas other 3D systems would.

Additionally, the integration of orientation sensors into a system withmultiple outwards facing cameras detecting fiducial markers, to providefor times when no markers are detectable due to rapid motion, is alsounique.

Overall, prior to the present invention, a wearable AR/VR helmetcontaining multiple synchronized outwards facing cameras, specializedhardware or firmware to detect fiducials, an on-board mini-computer tocalculate a 12 (or 16 element with a bottom row [0 0 0 1])projection/modelview matrix, and an on-board graphics system had notexisted.

Multi-Camera Array for Increasing Dynamic Range—with Applications suchas Spacecraft/Satellite Docking

Current image sensors have a limited dynamic range of intensity, thereis a relatively small range between the minimal detected lower level andmaximal detected high level of light intensity. To extend this to enablemarkers to be detected in applications with harsh lighting with a largerange between light and dark, the present invention uses an array ofimage sensors all aimed at the same scene, but with different iris,filters, or polarization filters mounted on each. Typically all thesesensors would be placed close together to capture almost the same view.Depending on the intensity and polarization of light reflected from amarker, one or more of the image sensors will detect the marker. Sensorswith a strong filter will detect the markers in bright lighting whereassensors with a weak filter will detect the markers with lowillumination, such as those in a shadow such as depicted in FIG. 26.

A single unit, composed of many image sensors aimed in the same scene,but each with different light gathering capabilities can be used forspacecraft docking or satellite capture as shown in FIG. 27. TheMulti-Camera Array unit implementing the disclosed MDAs mounted on oneof the moving objects can calculate the relative position andorientation relative to other objects which have markers mounted onthem, permitting fully automatic docking and satellite capture. Indeed,multi-camera units and markers can be mounted on all objects so that thepose information can be combined with the use of some communicationsystem to provide a further improved measurement.

FIG. 26 shows variable exposures achieved with the Multi-Camera Arrayinvention. Depicted is images captured from a four-camera system whereall cameras survey the same scene but each has a different exposure,such as can be achieved with different optical filters. This allows thesimultaneous detection of markers in dark and bright lighting that isnot possible with a single image sensor due to the limited dynamic rangeof intensity possible with a single sensor. This enables detection inextreme lighting environments such as spacecraft/satellite docking.

FIG. 27 shows spacecraft/satellite docking system using fiducial markersand the Multi-Camera Array invention where each camera has a differentoptical filter allowing the markers to be detected in the spaceenvironment with large ranges of light intensity between dark and brightsunlight. The left figure shows a mockup example using a space station,the right figure shows a demonstration docking system where the object'srelative pose (position and orientation) relative to the camera isautomatically calculated with each image frame to allow automaticdocking. Following are applications of the MDAs for remote control andaugmented reality applications using the markers. Hand-held remotecontrols typically emit infrared light in a specific pattern to areceiver which decodes them and performs the requisite function.However, to make it psychologically connected a receiver must bepositioned next to the equipment of interest, however often it is notconvenient to position such receivers in more than one place. With thisinvention one can simply place a marker, which is a simple printedpattern that does not require electrical power, and can be mounted nextto the equipment requiring control instead of a location convenient forwiring reasons.

For the augmented reality applications interactive graphics are shownaligned with the objects of interest providing relevant information, theuser perceives information “bubbles” over top of real world objects.These “bubbles” can contain information for logistics, and can beimplemented with web browser technology or remote screen capture, or canbe instructions from a remote user in a collaboration system, thefollowing text describe these.

Logistics Application

An application of the MDAs for logistics and warehousing (FIG. 28)applications is disclosed. Specifically a system using the MDAs onmobile hand-held and wearable devices where logistical and otherinformation is attached to markers so the information appearsgraphically over the marker in a live video or still image view on themobile device with the assistance to find objects by using markers seenwithin the image to direct the user towards other marker(s) mounted onor near objects or locations of interest according to previouslyautomatically learned spatial relationships, or to detect which objectsare not in the correct location according to the relative position ofthe markers seen by the mobile device. In the former case such as awarehouse, a user types a search term or finds their desired objectaccording to images in a program or web browser, and then is guided bygraphics such as arrows towards their desired object or location, suchas finding a box in the warehouse containing an item. In the second casesuch as a library, a librarian walks around a library with a mobiledevice which finds books in the wrong location due to the relativeposition of markers on the books. The system is also useful for thewarehouse user to aim their mobile device at boxes to see an image ofwhat is inside them (FIG. 29), or for security guards to aim theirmobile device at a marker on a door to see the imagery from a videocamera behind that door. This system is also useful for industrialplants where workers often spend time comparing their blueprints to thereal plant to try locate components, they could simply walk around thefirst time with paper blueprints and capture images of sections of theblueprints, mount a marker sticker on an object such as a pipe, and thenassociate the camera picture with the marker, so that later users couldsimply aim their device at the pipe and see a picture of the blueprintrelevant to the pipe. Maintenance logs and warranty and re-orderinginformation could also appear graphically over markers.

FIG. 28 shows a warehouse example wherein markers are placed on boxes,both to associate content about what is inside, but also to providerelative position information so that a user can be guided to a specificbox.

FIG. 29 shows a warehouse example with a view on a mobile device aimedat some containers. Three containers are in view with markers attachedto them. Previously captured pictures of what is inside the containersare displayed on the mobile device display over top of where the markerswere detected, to allow the user to “look inside” the container.

An extension of this is a networked system where a central serverprovides the information to mobile devices for each marker over awireless network. The information can be photographs taken previously bya user, audio messages, video tutorials, PDF document manuals, orcurrent SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) real timeinformation of equipment and sensor status.

The networked system would allow for the search assistance by notingautomatically the latest relative location of markers to guide otherusers to objects. For example, a wearable AR system worn by a forkliftdriver, or mounted on a forklift vehicle, could be constantly detectingthe relative location of markers relative to each other and reportingthis to the central server. All the objects in a warehouse could bequickly and automatically indexed for relative location. Likely thisrelative information would not be true Euclidean positions within asingle 3-dimensional coordinate system, but relative positions in groupswhere more than one marker was seen together at a time with no relativeposition information available between groups other than can be capturedby other positioning means. These relative positions may only be2-dimensional within planar sections such as warehouse rows.

Web-Browsers with Marker Detection

This describes an embodiment where world wide web technology is used tocreate the graphics and interactions that are used in remote control andaugmented reality systems using marker and the MDAs technology.

In a typical application, users print out fiducial marker patterns ontheir own printer, or apply pre-printed stickers with the patterns,putting a different fiducial marker pattern on each object of interest.Then using a conventional web browser they access the switchboardinterface to configure the graphics to display for each marker and setthe service or database connection information. Then in day to day use,a remote control, mobile phone or tablet, or wearable device can be usedto “look” at an object, see relevant real time information and executecontrol actions such as turning on and off lights.

At the time of this writing, AR systems are still an emerging technologyand the content shown and computer programming for interaction istypically custom made for the application. Specially trained workersthen must customize for changes and new content. Using the existing webleverages existing standards and accesses a wide group of contentdevelopers familiar with html, who can quickly look at their design in anormal web browser on their computer. Also, automatic attractive contentcan be created from a template, for example in a building each lightswitch will have a different name but all light switches can share thesame graphical design. The process of using the MDAs and overlaying webbrowser content is shown in FIGS. 30 and 31.

FIG. 30 shows detection of a marker and overlay of web or genericgraphics. Left to right: initial image, center of image with detectedmarker shown, overlay of advertisement graphic from the internet,arbitrary graphics (“Marker not assigned” text). FIG. 31 shows anindustrial augmented reality application using a web-browser to displaya graphical interaction experience for the user. This figure shows whatwould be on the display of a hand-held or wearable device. The bluegraphic is overlaid over the video or still image captured from thedevice. In this example a blue line links the graphic to a marker toconfirm to the user which machine is being interfaced to.

The interactive graphics to show the user is provided by web graphicssuch as html, html5, Adobe Flash®, etc. Typically the actual contentcreation of hand-held remote controls containing display screens and ARsystems is application specific programming and graphics. Instead withthis invention the creation of interactive content is accelerated usingconventional web graphics and interaction primitives.

Specifically, this embodiment of this invention is of an AR system whichconsists of: fiducial markers placed in the environment, mobile devicewith a camera to see the fiducial markers, graphics display on themobile device which shows graphics and interaction elements using a webbrowser, a webserver which provides interaction web pages for theinteraction “widgets” to display on the mobile device, and optionally anetwork such as a WIFI, Bluetooth, mobile 3G data, etc for communicationbetween the mobile device and the web server if the web server is notinside the mobile device. This process is depicted in FIG. 41. Also partof the system is the management of matching a marker to a specific webpage, likely this list will exist as s list on the webserver and can beconfigured using a conventional web interface.

FIG. 41 shows a flow of events. Fiducial markers are detected in themobile device's camera, markers located using computer vision algorithm,requests are made to webserver according to marker ID's, widgets aresent back (most likely composed of HTML) and interpreted by the webbrowser. The widget contains executable code (most likely JQuery callssuch as AJAX and POST in javascript) which requests data from servicesin the webserver, such as the height of a storage tank in this example,and sends control instructions such as turning on and off a light, orchanging a motor speed. The widget with the correct data is now drawnand displayed to the user who sees the blue tank level widget byfiducial marker ID #2 and the grey on/off widget next to fiducialmarkerID #3. The “switchboard” (not shown) resides inside the webservercomputer system and routes the requests to the appropriate industrialprotocol service or database.

The placement of one or more web browsers over a live video feed or inthe eyepiece of a wearable computing system, the positions of saidbrowsers which change with that of detected markers, allows for ageneric system that can be easily customized by changing content in aremote web server without changing the system.

A further aspect of the present invention is a computer datavisualization and control system where graphical interaction graphics(called “widgets” herein) are downloaded to a mobile device from awebserver, rendered on the mobile device using one or more web browsers.Fiducial markers are affixed to objects and recognized in video andstill image imagery from the mobile device's camera, each of whichfiducial marker contains a unique ID which refers to a given widget.FIG. 39 shows how this widget can be used on either remote controldevices or mobile devices. FIG. 39 shows a web-server providing widgetsto a user device. Widgets are in existing web formats containing bothgraphics and interaction elements.

A fundamental component is a mapping between marker unique ID's (fromtheir interior digital code) and a URL web address. This URL address canbe an address on the world wide web, or in a preferred implementationthis is an address to a local server which returns the widget andoptionally connects to a “service” such as a light switch or registersinside an industrial SCADA system or to information inside a database.FIG. 40 shows the server supplying “widgets” (labeled asoverlay/controls) and a connection to one of several “services”controlled by the “switchboard”. The same “widget” can be used withseveral markers but can each connect to a different service, such as theapplication of turning on and off light switches, the same graphicalwidget, probably in the form of a web-page, could be re-used for eachlight but each would display a different label and control a differentswitch. This is the “switchboard” functionality, where communicationbetween web pages running on one or more web browsers on each mobiledevice and the source of information or recipient of control actions.For industrial systems this information and control would be managed bya “service” for each industrial protocol, such as Modbus (®Schneider-Electric) or an OPC (® Matrikon) server. In one form ofimplementation this switchboard functionality is managed by thewebserver as well. For database driven applications, this informationand control is the access to specific parts of a database, such asmaintenance logs, blueprint data, bathroom cleaning logs, library books,etc. As stated, the URL address may, or may not, be on the actualinternet but will most likely be on an internal network. FIG. 42 shows aview of a “Switchboard” web server configuration page. Each marker ID(eg. 11,12,13) is attached to a graphics ‘widget’ which provides thegraphics and a ‘service’ which provides the real time data such as flowrate. Note marker ID #12 is connected to the flow rate widget shown inFIG. 43 (right). FIG. 12 shows the flow rate widget drawn over top of avideo or still image for an augmented reality application on a mobiledevice.

FIG. 40 shows industrial AR system example. A webserver sends overlays(widgets, controls) to a mobile device. The system has a set of basicwidgets that the system designer chooses from. The designer alsoconfigures each widget to connect to an appropriate “service”. Modbusand OPC are examples of industry standard interfaces which have softwarecalled services implementing them. The services communicate through theswitchboard to send and receive information and control actions betweenthe industrial system and the web browser(s) running in the mobiledevice. The switchboard performs the dual task of sending the controloverlay widget graphics to the mobile device, and possibly interactionsoftware program, to the mobile device according to the detected marker,and the second task of relaying data requests and responses between themobile device and the services. A different service would likely becreated for each type of system being communicated with.

FIG. 42 shows a view of a switchboard web server configuration page.Each marker ID (e.g. 11,12,13) is attached to a graphics widget whichprovides the graphics and a ‘service’ which provides the real time datasuch as flow rate. Note marker ID #12 is connected to the flow ratewidget shown in FIG. 43 (right).

FIG. 43 shows a sample fiducial marker #12 on the left, while the rightshows a widget viewed in conventional web-browser. The right widget isassigned to fiducial ID #12 and is presented by a web-server whenqueried for the marker ID.

FIG. 41 depicts the flow of events where the widget is a webpage runningin a web-browser which calls information from a “service”. Fiducialmarkers are detected in the mobile device's camera, markers locatedusing computer vision algorithm, requests are made to webserveraccording to marker ID's, widgets are sent back (most likely composed ofHTML) and interpreted by the web browser. The widget contains executablecode (most likely JQuery calls such as AJAX and POST in javascript)which requests data from services in the webserver, such as the heightof a storage tank in this example, and sends control instructions suchas turning on and off a light, or changing a motor speed. The widgetwith the correct data is now drawn and displayed to the user who seesthe blue tank level widget by fiducial marker ID #2 and the grey on/offwidget next to fiducial markerID #3. The “switchboard” (not shown)resides inside the webserver computer system and routes the requests tothe appropriate industrial protocol service or database.

Three embodiments of the system using three different mobile devices aredescribed. The mobile computing devices are: 1) a remote control devicewith display screen and outward facing video camera (as in FIG. 10), 2)a consumer phone or tablet device (as shown in FIG. 11 left), or 3)wearable mobile devices worn on the user's head (as shown in FIG. 11right). The first embodiment of a hand-held remote control is used tocontrol equipment, a user points it at a marker positioned close to theobject it controls (such as a light switch) and a menu appears on thedisplay screen providing information and control inputs. The second andthird embodiments are augmented reality systems where users see thecomputer generated graphics which appear to be connected to real worldobjects. The graphics contain useful information about the objects, suchas temperature and pressure readings in an industrial setting, thedestination and contents of a box in a warehouse, or the price of anarticle in a store. In some applications the user will also controlequipment or change database information, such as turning on or off alight or updating a service log. In the first embodiment of the presentinvention the web page is simply displayed on the remote control'sdisplay screen. In the second and third embodiment augmented reality isimplemented: the graphics are shown in a moving virtual web browserwindow positioned over one or more detected markers. This virtual webbrowser window is placed over a live view and a ‘widget’ appears (asample display screen example shown in FIG. 31) which is written in htmlor other web standard languages. In all three cases the widget contentis downloaded from a conventional web server onto the mobile device, anddisplayed over the detected position of a 2D printed marker.

FIG. 10 illustrates the 1st embodiment of the mobile device component ofthe system. A hand-held remote control device contains an outward facingvideo or still image camera, computer vision processing algorithms tofind fiducial markers in this imagery, a management system which relaysthese detected marker ID's to a webserver, and a display device whosecontent is generated with a web browser. A micro-computer couldimplement the marker detection with software algorithms and the webbrowser. Optionally special processing hardware such as FPGA's, ASIC's,or DSP's could perform the computer vision processing to find thefiducial markers to improve speed and reduce the requirements for themicro-computer. Network connectivity is necessary, most likely WIFI,Bluetooth, data over a cellular phone network such as 3G, or otherwireless communication like Zigby. The display in one embodiment showsdifferent information depending on which, if any, fiducial marker theremote is being aimed at. The display could show relevant informationsuch what equipment is currently being communicated with. The remotecontrol in one embodiment contains buttons whose functionality maychange, or the display itself would be a touch sensitive display so thatvirtual buttons would appear. A typical application could be in a “smartbuilding” to control lights, HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, AirConditioning), control door locks, open window blinds, etc. A laserpointer may be built into the remote control so that the user canspecifically aim the laser dot at a fiducial marker to select it sincethe center of the image sensor's field of view is not as easy todetermine.

FIG. 11 illustrates the second embodiment of the mobile device componentof the system where a mobile phone or tablet is used instead of thecustom made remote control device of FIG. 10. In this way the 2ndembodiment can be implemented fully in software. Similar to the remotecontrol device of FIG. 10 the phone or tablet contains an outward facingimage sensor, a micro-computer, The user would run an “app” which is aprogram that operates an outward facing camera, processing the imageryto find fiducial markers, requests content from a remote webserver, andimplement one or more web browsers to display the widget and handle itsinteractions. Network capability such as WIFI or others listed above ispart of this device in one embodiment. Three key difference from FIG. 10is that the display: 1—contains both the camera imagery and thewidget(s), 2—there is possibly more than one widget displayed, and thepositions of the widget(s) changes in accord with the image position ofthe fiducial marker in the image unless that widget is in a “fullscreen” mode. Therefore the second (and third) embodiment is trueaugmented reality (AR). The second embodiment differs from the third inthat it will be easier for control actions since the user can easilytouch the screen. A wearable device worn on the head may not have asmany input control options.

FIG. 11 (right) illustrates the third embodiment of the mobile devicecomponent of the system where a wearable system is used to experiencethe AR effect instead of a hand-held device. The mobile device has thesame system components of video (or still image) camera, display,micro-computer, one or more web browser(s) and a display screen. Similarto the 2nd embodiment the functionality can be implemented fully insoftware as a mobile “app”. The display screen for the wearable could bea single eyepiece display or stereo display providing imagery to botheyes. Likely for an industrial application the worker needs their normalfull vision and only wants this system to provide some information andso there would be sparse amounts of visual information presented. Thedisplay in one embodiment could be “optical see-through” where thedisplay is transparent, does not show the video camera image, and only afew pixels become opaque. Alternatively, the display could be “videosee-through” showing both the camera imagery and the overlaid widgets,i.e. the same as the 2nd embodiment but in the eyepiece display. Forminimum discomfort a single eyepiece display extending from a hardhatcould be the best configuration. The Google Glass® is one example ofsuch a wearable system. The advantage of the wearable system is that(with sufficient battery capability) it could always be operational andprovide information passively, meaning that the user can detect eventsand information without first intending to find such information. Forexample, a flashing red widget over a machine warning of an errorcondition could be seen as the user walked by not originally thinkingabout that machine. Information could stream into the worker's mind inthe form of small graphics conveying only small bits of summarized orimportant information. This is an advantage over the 2nd embodiment,that of the hand-held device, in that for the hand-held devices the userhas to first consciously want to see some information and then run theapp on the device, and aim it at the object of interest. Thedisadvantage of the wearable device is that it is harder to issuecommand instructions. Wearable devices typically only have a smallnumber of gestures, taps, or swipes that can be done with the finger onthe device. A possible solution is that the user also carries a remotecontrol (1st embodiment) or mobile device (2nd embodiment) which theytake out and use if they decided to issue some commands, or the usercould use hand-held fiducial markers to make gestures with that are seenwith the wearable device's camera. In this configuration the wearabledevice only accesses information in a “read only” paradigm. Anotherdisadvantage of wearable devices is the differing fields of view ofcamera and display as addressed in FIGS. 45, 46 and 47.

In remote control devices (embodiment #1) it is useful, althoughoptional, to have the remote control function for controlling a varietyof different machines or input to a computer, for example the sameremote control could be used to control room lighting, turn a fan to adifferent speed, turn on or off some industrial machinery, changechannels on television, or interact with a kiosk at a conference. Inthis aspect of the invention a fiducial marker is placed on or near eachobject that interaction is desired with, and an interaction controlwidget is downloaded from a server computer. Specifically, in thisaspect, the broad existing work of interfaces for the world wide webwould be leveraged and so this server would be a web server. The remotecontrol has a display screen and some input capability such as thedisplay being touch sensitive or separate inputs such as buttons,joysticks, sliders, etc. In many applications the remote can simply haveonly a touch sensitive display so that the user can touch directly onthe graphics. Depending on the device being controlled, a differentcontrol interface will appear. An application could be a hospital wherestaff control lights, fans, door locks, and other equipment using thisremote control. This control could be performed without having to enterinfected areas or touch possibly infected surfaces or objects such aslight switches, the control can even be done through a window withouthaving to enter a room. The staff would aim the remote at a fiducialmarker located on or near the device being controlled, a different menu(widget) will appear on the display depending on the device. For thissystem the devices such as the lights, etc must be controlled from acomputing device somewhere that is attached to a network that the remotecan access wirelessly.

The 2^(nd) and 3^(rd) embodiment of this invention are augmented reality(AR) applications where the same system components exist as in the1^(st) embodiment except that the user experiences the illusion of thecontrol widgets being over top of the markers through either a videosee-through or optical see-through AR configuration. The 2^(nd)embodiment of this invention is with tablet or ‘smartphone’ mobile phonedevices, or custom devices of similar design with a display screen andoutwards facing image sensor. Most likely this 2^(nd) embodiment isimplemented as mere software on a consumer mobile device such as aniPad® (Apple Inc.), a Samsung 8 Galaxy® tablet running the Android®(Google Inc) operating system, or a smartphone such as an Android® oriPhone® (Apple Inc) mobile phone since they contain all the necessarycomponents of outwards facing image sensor, user facing display screen,a micro-computer with webserver and a wireless interface such as WIFI®or data over the cellular mobile phone network (eg. 3G networks). The2^(nd) and 3^(rd) embodiment of this invention are augmented realitysystems in that they provide the information and possible interactiongraphic (called a ‘widget’ herein) that appears to be in the same placeor direction as the physical object. With the 2^(nd) embodiment thedisplay is typically not transparent and so the display would show thevideo or still image captured by the outward facing image sensor, andthis video or still image would have a widget displayed on top alignedwith the position of the fiducial marker as detected in the image. Inthe typical expected case, that of real time video being captured by theimage sensor, the widget would appear to belong to the physical scene asthat it moves on the display in a way consistent with the motion of thedevice. The effect is similar to the mixing of computer graphics andreal film footage in the movie industry, the computer graphics is drawnin a way to be consistent with where it would be seen if it was a realobject in the scene. The 2^(nd) embodiment would typically have a touchsensitive screen, as found in consumer tablet or mobile phone devices atthe time of this writing (2014) which would allow possible controlactions by the user. The 3^(rd) embodiment is a wearable device whichmay or may not have control actions possible since it would be difficultfor user to interact with the device, unless it was paired with ahand-held electronic device or hand-held fiducial markers also detectedby the wearable device's camera. The wearable device could be an opticalsee-through AR system where the display would not show the camera imageas in the suggested implementation of the 2^(nd) embodiment (tablets andmobile phones) but would instead show only the widget graphics.

In both embodiments the widget graphics are shown in a way that isintuitively obvious to the user that they belong with a physical objectin the environment. In the simplest case the widget is drawn so that itscenter is at the same location in the image as the projection of thecenter of the fiducial marker. In a more usable system, the position ofthe widget would not exactly follow the image position of the fiducialmarker in order to reduce the shaking of the graphic making it hard toread as the user's hands will likely shake holding the device. Also,with several fiducial markers, the widgets may overlap too much andprovide too much visual clutter and so they may be drawn in differentpositions not exactly over the fiducial marker image location so as notto overlay, but would have some way to associate them with theircorresponding marker, such as a line or arrow connecting the widget tothe center of the marker. This could be described as the widgets being“bubbles” or “balloons” gently pushing each other out of the way so asnot to overlap.

Aspects of the present invention combine object recognition usingfiducial markers with existing graphics and interaction mechanismsdesigned for the world wide web to provide intuitive remote control andaugmented reality interactions. The object recognition is achieved withcomputer vision processing of images on a mobile device to detectspecially printed marker patterns. Graphical “widgets” allow both datavisualization and control functions. The use of fiducial markers allowsfor the automatic selection of what information and control interfacesto provide. The use of conventional web graphics allows for easycreation and modification of interfaces, and the simple provisioning ofgraphic types and interfaces to equipment control and databases.

A specific possible implementation and architecture using the webtechnology at the time of this writing is disclosed. Using HTMLjavascript executable code within the widget to provide procedurallygenerated graphics, animations, and active updating of information usingJSON coding, communicated with Ajax and HTTP POST operations, and therouting of these messages to equipment or database services using amodel-view-controller architecture in the webserver is one manner ofimplementation.

Useful additions are for handling un-assigned markers, the “age” ofdata, and handling devices with differing camera and display fields ofview. The default widget that appears for markers whose ID number (andoptionally marker family) have not been assigned to a function. FIG. 44describes the default graphic that appears and a web interface it canlaunch to allow the user to select from sets of graphics and serviceelements that have no marker association. For assigned widgets with datawhose age is important, a clock-like graphical add-on appears on widgetsindicating how old the data is (FIG. 48). For wearable devices such asthe Google Glass™ the video camera captures a much larger part of theuser's field of view than the eyepiece display occupies, the challengeof representing this information for augmented reality is addressed withthe technique shown in FIGS. 45, 46, 47.

FIG. 44 shows a widget interface for assigning markers that are not yetassociated with a widget and service. The “Marker Not Assigned” widgetis first shown as a small icon if it is in the periphery of the view(upper left). The widget then grows larger to the medium size when it iscloser to the display center (upper right). In a working prototypesystem the widget is grey. The small and medium size widgets follow themarker. When the user taps it the widget moves to a fixed spot in thecenter of the view and enlarges (lower left). A line that extends fromthe widget border to the marker center assuring the user of what markeris being associated. The large widget offers two options for “Assign toExisting Map” or “Assign to New Map”, as well as a cancel function withthe red cross icon. If the user taps on the “Assign to Existing Map” or“Assign to New Map” buttons the application exits and takes the user toa conventional web-browser (lower right) for more convenientinteraction. In the lower right image the user has a list of controlwidget and service connections. The first entries are those without amarker association, then are a list of already associated sets ofcontrol widget, service, and marker should the user wish to replace amarker.

The size and location of the widgets can be made to depend on thelocation in the user's field of view, and whether the widget has beenselected by the user or not. Smaller widget sizes show less informationbut occupy less display space. FIG. 35 shows a preferred setup wherethere are three different sizes of the widget to be drawn, furthermorethe graphics for all three can be combined into a single web page widgetso there is no delay in loading as the device changes the desireddrawing size. FIG. 36 shows the how the location of the detected markerin the camera image, and whether it is selected or not, affects the sizeof the screen given to the web-browser to draw its content and what sizeit is told to draw at.

FIG. 32 shows an industrial augmented reality application visualization.Logistics data (left), sensor data (middle) and manual, blueprint,schematic information available (right) are shown in the visualization.Users see information such as logistics and control information thatappears to exist near relevant objects. This illusion is achieved byplacing ‘widgets’ so they appear close to the relevant objects from theuser's point of view. Industrial systems such as SCADA industrialautomation and logistics applications such as warehouse applications areshown.

FIG. 33 shows examples of widgets generated using web browser graphics.

FIG. 34 shows three augmented realities shown in a single image, each isa separate web browser, or virtual web page within an html IFRAME tag.

FIG. 35 shows widget display size. Depending on where the marker is inthe user's field of view, the widget is displayed at a correspondingsize.

How the system is designed to handle the motion of the widgets is shownin FIGS. 37 and 38. FIG. 37 shows how each widget is given its ownweb-browser, which consumes more memory and CPU resources but is simplerto implement, a different web browser is placed over each markerlocation. FIG. 38 shows a slight refinement where a lower number ofactual web browsers are requested from the operating system but theoutput graphics and interaction touch events are copied to and frompositions over top of the display. In FIG. 38 the three small widgetsare all drawn with one web browser drawn to a hidden area, but theiroutput graphics are copied over to three separate locations in thedisplay image. Likewise, interaction events like screen touches over thethree different display locations are transferred back to thecorresponding part of the hidden single web browser to invoke theappropriate response. Multiple widgets can be drawn with a single webbrowser using primitives such as html IFRAME or DIV to contain manypages within one page. The purpose of this complexity is for systemssuch as some earlier versions of the Android® and iOS® mobile operatingsystems that limit the number of web-browsers that can be requested fromthe operating system, which in some cases can be less than the number ofdetected markers.

FIG. 36 shows suggested interactivity of widgets for 2nd and 3rdembodiments to match the user's attention. The rectangular borderrepresents the user's field of view, which is the display screen in the2nd embodiment. The widget from the web browser is drawn over the markerin the 2nd embodiment, or in the direction of the marker in the 3rdembodiment. As the marker moves closer to the center it becomes larger.When selected it becomes a large or full screen graphic in a fixedposition. Control actions, such as turning on and off equipment, wouldtypically only occur in the (large) rightmost or 2nd to rightmost (fullscreen) modes to prevent accidental operation.

FIG. 37 shows the case of multiple markers in view of the mobiledevice's camera that correspond to visible places in the display screen.This diagram depicts multiple web browser windows, one placed centeredat the location of each marker. Each web browser draws the content of anindividual web page sent by the server. Alternatively, the differentwindows could be embedded web pages inside a single fixed browserwindow, using primitives such as html IFRAME or DIV to contain manypages within one page. The virtual windows would have to move andpossibly appear/disappear as markers change in each input image frame.

FIG. 38 shows another implementation of multiple web pages using asingle web browser. The web browser contains multiple web pages withinone larger page, this content is rendered to a single hidden page thatthe user does not see, and sections copied and placed over the correctlocations within the display visible to the user. This method is usefulfor the case where the web browser uses up a lot of computer resourceson the mobile device and it is not efficient or possible to have manyindependent individual web browsers.

FIG. 45 shows implications of the difference of camera and display fieldof view for wearable augmented reality devices. A prototype of the 3rdembodiment was implemented using the Google Glass® wearable device whichhas a much smaller field of view for the display compared with what thewide angle camera can see, as perceived by the point of view of thehuman's eye. The outer “Camera Field of View” box shows what the cameraon the Google Glass captures, the much smaller box titled “Display View”shows what part of this view the user sees. This large field of view forthe camera is helpful in that it allows markers from a large directionrange to be detected. However, the system should somehow indicateinformation from markers that are outside of the display range.

FIG. 46 shows example of augmented reality view perceived by a userusing a wearable display. The left image shows a large field of viewimage captured by the wearable device's video camera. The right imageshows the “control widgets” displayed. Referring to FIG. 45, only thecenter marker is within the field of view covered by the display, thismarker is associated with the “Valve #1” control widget. Only the centermarker is the larger widget in the right image and all the other widgetsare smaller and have lines emanating from them towards their associatedmarkers. Only the right image is shown on the semi-transparent display,the camera view is not shown on this “optical see-through” system. Theblack part of this display image (right) is the most transparent. Theeffective view that the human eye sees is shown in FIG. 47.

FIG. 47 shows a view experienced by a user using wearable augmentedreality system, in this case a Google Glass wearable device operated in“optical see-through” mode. The white quadrilateral is not visible andonly shown to demonstrate the small field of view the eyepiece displayoccupies in the user's view. The system shows control widgets overmarkers that lie within the angular field of view of the display.However, this is not possible for markers detected by the wider field ofview camera and so the control widgets are shown at half size at theedges of the display region with lines or arrows pointing towards theirmarkers. In this way a user can be alerted of some information and canturn their head towards it to see more. In this implementation onlysmall size widgets are shown and not the medium size due to the limiteddisplay area. Also, the full screen graphics are not used in thisexample since there is no convenient way for the user to interact. Inthis way, the wearable device is treated as only a presenter ofinformation, and the user is expected to have a second device such as atablet for control capabilities or more information.

FIG. 48 shows a visual indicator of how old data is. Left: the widget atan early time after the data reading of 146 L/S was acquired, the farright shows the widget after a long time has elapsed indicating that thereading might be out of date. Time elapsed graphic is added to thewidget, in this example, as a circle in the upper right with a growingangular region that increases clock-wise with a color indication of ageof data. It is sometimes important for the user to know how “old” thedata is, i.e. the time since its measurement. The rate that this examplegraphic changes would depend on the application, for data that changesfrequently this indicator would change quickly, such as over a fewseconds. Other time and age indicators could be used such as digitalclock displays.

Screen Capture

In some cases, the web-browser MDAs invention is not convenient to use,and it is better to simply take graphics from a central computer'sdisplay and present it with augmented reality over markers attached torelevant objects. Two sample scenarios are given where information is ina central computer, and already graphically displayed on a computerscreen in some location, but not displayed at the site where thisinformation is desired.

The first example is an industrial facility where sensors and controlsare wired up with a ‘SCADA’ (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition)system. This SCADA information, such as motor speeds, pipe pressures,tank level are typically displayed on a computer in a control room butnot displayed actually at the physical site of the motor, pipe, or tankin the plant. While it is possible to intercept or interface to thisSCADA system, to connect to the SCADA communications system is often notdesired for reasons such as the knowledge to do this was with theoriginal plant designers and not the current operators, fear ofdisturbing a working system, and often the commercial provider of theSCADA system does not even provide access to make this possible.

The second example is of security cameras in a building, one can viewall the imagery from these cameras from the main security central room,but often a security guard on foot within the building may wish to seethis imagery, such as wondering what is behind a door. The guard mayonly wish to see a sub-section of one of the monitors in the controlroom to see what is currently seen by that camera.

In both these examples the desired imagery is already displayed invisual form, and if part of the imagery on a computer screen, in wholeor in part of one screen, could be easily transmitted to the remoteworker's mobile device, the worker could achieve more efficiency andsafety in their work. A system that captured this imagery would stilltypically require that the mobile user select the specific imagery theydesire, such as the sub-section of a computer screen, thus forcing theworker to interact with their device to navigate menus or lists to findthis content. With this disclosed invention, each site of interest has adifferent fiducial marker attached to it, such as to each pump, pipe,motor, tank, etc or to doors or locations on the other side of a doorfrom a video camera of interest. The user aims their mobile device atthe marker and it selects and retrieves the information of interestinstantly without any needed interaction by the user.

In both these examples, the mobile device could be a smartphone ortablet where the imagery is drawn on top of the video or still image inpositions which are a function of the image location of the fiducialmarkers in such a way to improve the visual quality of the view. Thisfunction would take the position in the display image of all detectedfiducial markers as input and would output the location of the widgetcenters. A line or arrow or some indication may connect the markerlocation to the widget so that if the widget is not directly close tothe fiducial the user would be able to see what fiducial the widgetbelongs to. Below are three possible elements of this function, thefunction may perform one, two, or three of these:

-   -   a) a low pass smoothing function or kalman filter, DESP (Double        Exponential), or similar which reduces the shaking and jittering        of the widgets as that the image location of the fiducials may        shake due to image noise and instability of the user's hand;    -   b) adaption to prevent widgets from overlapping, they would push        each other out of the way, such as bubbles bumping against each        other; and    -   c) adaptation to prevent widgets from not been fully seen        because they extend beyond the display borders, such as if the        fiducial markers are close to the border and the widgets are        larger than the fiducials in the display image. In this case the        widget's position would be adjusted inwards so it can be viewed        in its entirety.

FIG. 52 shows the information from a computer screen in the main controlroom in the left figure, which is often desired on mobile devices(middle figure) when out at the facility (outside image right figure). Amarker is affixed to the relevant object and it is desired for the userto access the relevant bit of information from the control screen.

FIG. 53 shows how information from a distant computer is accessible whenusing a mobile device, without needing to interface to the industrialcommunication system. The desired information is already in graphicalformat and a section of the distant computer screen is shown on themobile device when aiming the mobile device at the object of interest.This invention uses a program running on the distant computer toperiodically capture pre-configured sub-sections of the computer screen,with each one associated with a distinct marker. When the image sensoron the mobile device (tablet shown in far right) detects the marker, itdisplays the most recent corresponding sub-section. The lower rightimage shows what is seen on the screen of a mobile tablet device.

Collaboration

A similar MDAs based aspect of the present invention is the use ofmarkers for remote collaboration as depicted in FIG. 49. Sendingmaintenance workers out to a site is an inefficient process costing alot of travel money and time for workers and businesses. This disclosesan invention based on the marker detection algorithms that allows twopeople to work remotely on a single site. A typical application exampleis an expert on a standard computer back at some main office guiding alocal worker on a remote mine site perform testing and maintenance on apiece of equipment such as a fuse panel. Simple audio descriptions andexplanations over a conventional phone often don't suffice and theexpert is forced to travel out to the site. The present inventiondiscloses a method by which fiducial markers are placed around the siteof interest and used to provide a graphical overlay visible to bothparties. Both parties can draw graphics such as arrows, text, lines andcircles to identify and guide the other. The local worker sees thegraphics over their field of view such that they line up with the objectas seen by the remote worker. Fiducial markers are used to align theoverlay view seen by the local worker in the screen of their mobilehand-held or wearable device.

Following the fuse panel example, the local worker has a mobile deviceconnected over a network to the remote expert back in the main city whois working on their conventional computer. The two workers are connectedby a live audio connection as well, using both this verbal communicationand the graphical overlay the local worker is guided by the remoteexpert to complete the task. The local worker sees overlay graphics intheir live video view on their mobile device, where the overlay graphicsis added on top of live video input from an outward facing image sensor.The remote expert sees a still image with the graphics overlaid on theircomputer. The image view seen by the remote expert is updated by anaction by either party or occurs automatically with a timer. The remoteexpert uses their mouse or touch screen to select a colour of virtualpaint and draws arrows and text over the image. The local worker canalso draw their own overlay graphics to ask questions such as “do youmean this fuse?”. The graphics drawn by either worker can be visuallydistinguished from one another and each side can erase their drawings.The markers are either attached temporarily by the local workers, suchas temporary stickers, or are permanent markers attached to the fusepanel. If this is the first time the system has seen the markerarrangement, the system must learn the marker locations, either from asingle image or by the local worker moving the mobile device around todifferent viewpoints. After the learning process is complete thesoftware on the mobile device can align a 3-dimensional or 2-dimensionaltransform between the coordinate system of the mobile display screen anda coordinate system on the fuse panel.

FIG. 49 shows a diagram of remote collaboration using MDAs. An expertback in a main office (top left) communicates with a local worker in aremote factory (bottom left) to diagnose and fix a fuse panel (secondfrom left). The local worker puts marker stickers on the fuse panel(middle) allowing the mobile device, a tablet in this example, to alignoverlay graphics of arrows, drawings, and text over top of the videoimage of the fuse panel. The graphical instructions appear lined up withthe real fuse box.

It will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that variants can existin the above-described layouts, uses, applications and methods. Thescope of the claims should not be limited by the preferred embodimentsset forth in the examples, but should be given the broadestinterpretation consistent with the description as a whole.

REFERENCES

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We claim:
 1. An augmented reality system comprised of: capture means forcapturing at least one video or still image, said capture means having adisplay screen; fiducial marker patterns located on one or more objectswithin view of the capture means; recognition means for recognizing saidfiducial markers in the at least one video or still image; calculationmeans for calculating a mathematical transform between the displayscreen of the capture means and arbitrary world coordinates of thefiducial marker patterns; graphic drawing means for placing overlaydrawings and graphics on the display screen; transmission means fortransmitting the at least one video or still image to a remote location;and receiver means for receiving other overlay drawings and graphicsfrom the remote location.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein thetransmitter means also transmits the overlay drawings and graphics tothe remote location.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein said capturemeans is a mobile device comprising an outward facing video or stillimage capture and a micro-computer.
 4. The system of claim 1, whereinthe mathematical transform is a ‘homography’ matrix, ‘projectionmatrix’, or a representation of euclidean rotation and translation. 5.The system of claim 1, wherein the overlay drawings and graphics areselected from the group consisting of lines, arrows, icons, text, 3Dmodels and other visual aids.
 6. The system of claim 1, furthercomprising a visual indication of an age of the visually displayedinformation.
 7. The system of claim 6, wherein the visual indication isa color coded clock graphic shown on the display.
 8. An augmentedreality system comprised of: fiducial marker patterns located on one ormore objects or locations of interest at a remote location; capturemeans for capturing at least one video or still image of the fiducialmarker patterns, said capture means having a display; recognition meansfor recognizing said fiducial markers in the at least one video or stillimage; transmission means for transmitting the recognized fiducialmarker patterns to a central location; receiver means for receivingvisually displayed information associated with the remote location fromthe central location; and wherein the visually displayed information isshown on the display.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the visuallydisplayed information includes information from a security cameradisplay or information pertaining to an industrial automation system.10. The system of claim 8, wherein the visually displayed information iscaptured at the remote location either by a program capable of accessingthe visually displayed information or a camera device aimed at acomputer screen.
 11. The system of claim 8, further comprising a serverfor sending the visually displayed information to the receiver means.12. The system of claim 8, wherein said capture means is a mobile devicecomprising an outward facing video or still image capture and amicro-computer.
 13. The system of claim 8, wherein the mobile device isa smartphone or tablet comprising widgets drawn on top of the capturedfiducial marker patterns in the at least one video or still image shownon the display.
 14. The system of claim 8, wherein the mobile device isa wearable device and the display is positioned to correspond to adirection seen by one or both of a user's eyes.
 15. The system of claim14, wherein the display has controllable transparency so the user cansee through the display.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein thecontrollable transparency enables the visually displayed information toappear in association with the objects or locations of interest at theremote location.
 17. The system of claim 8, further comprising a visualindication of an age of the visually displayed information.
 18. Thesystem of claim 17, wherein the visual indication is a color coded clockgraphic shown on the display.
 19. The system of claim 8, where thevisually displayed information is from a standard Supervisory Controland Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.
 20. The system of claim 8, whereinthe visually displayed information is images captured from securitycameras in a typical security control room where several monitorsdisplay a tiled display and each tile is from a different securitycamera.
 21. The system of claim 13, wherein the visually displayedinformation is overlayed on top of at least one video or still image inthe display.
 22. The system of claim 21, further comprising an indicatorto associate each widget with each of the fiducial marker patterns fromthe at least one video or still image.
 23. The system of claim 22,further comprising noise filtering to reduce noise from movement of thecapture means.
 24. The system of claim 22, further comprising adaptationmeans to ensure the widgets are displayed on the display.
 25. The systemof claim 24, wherein the adaptation means prevents widgets fromoverlapping and prevents widgets from extending beyond borders of thedisplay.